No. 2 LSU Gymnastics Looks To Start Fast At No. 7 Missouri On Friday

By ANDRE CHAMPAGNE, Tiger Rag Staff Reporter

The No. 2 LSU gymnastics team is back on the road this week, traveling to Columbia to face No. 7 Missouri on Friday at Hearnes Center (6:45 p.m., SEC Network).

The Tigers are coming off their best meet of the season, posting a season-high 198.050 in their home opener against Kentucky (0-5, 0-1 Southeastern Conference). LSU’s 198.050 score was the second highest in the nation this season, trailing only No. 1 Oklahoma’s 198.425 performance last week.

LSU (3-1-1, 1-1 SEC) dropped its first SEC road meet of the season at No. 8 Georgia (2-1, 1-1 SEC) and has not won against Missouri (4-2, 0-2 SEC) in Columbia since the 2020 season. As the Tigers hit the road for the third time this season, head coach Jay Clark wants his team to perform more consistently on the road.

“We’ve got to get to where we don’t rely and then we’re not dependent on anything external no matter what,” Clark said on Monday. “Whether circumstance, atmosphere, number of fans, none of it should matter. We got to be able to find it intrinsically. And then there are times when we’ve been able to do that and then there’s times historically where we haven’t and I think that’s on us to create that mindset. It’s on this team to be able to create that mindset for themselves and I think the leadership within has got to be able to control that.”

Slow starts often plague SEC teams on the road, and LSU experienced just that in Athens a couple weeks ago.  The Tigers posted uncharacteristically low scores in the middle rotations, recording a 49.075 on vault and a 48.950 on floor. Clark said LSU must find a way to start fast while continuing to improve in each rotation throughout the meet.  

“We got to start our meets the way that we’ve shown that we can finish them,” Clark said. “Even at Georgia, we finished strong on balance beam. We showed we can do that when we were at Sprouts and as this meet (Kentucky meet) progressed, we got better and better and we captured the momentum and stayed on it ‘til the end, but nonetheless, we still are growing and we’ve got to find ways improve and get off to fast starts that don’t potentially dig us a hole as we go and get into some of these tougher meets coming up.”

Clark believes his team is fully capable of starting hot. He has been particularly pleased with the Tigers’ leadoff performers, including sophomore Lexi Zeiss on bars and vault, junior Kylie Coen on beam and senior Emily Innes on floor.. Clark emphasized the importance of an effective leadoff.

“I think it just calms everybody, especially on beam,” Clark said. “In general, the leadoff spot should be that person that sort of settles everybody in and gets the ball rolling. It’s not always going to be the most glamorous spot. It’s not always going to get the score that even in some cases that it deserves, but we’re seeing 9.90’s and better from that spot already, so the quality of the gymnastics is such, at least for our leadoff spots, is that it’s hard not to give them that when they really put it together.”