2022 LSU Gumbo - Book - Page 38
Photos by Georgia Jones
The No. 8 LSU gymnastics team took down No. 6
Auburn in a historic win with two perfect 10s and a season
high score of 197.975 to give LSU its 300th win in the
crowded PMAC.
Going into the meet, LSU Coach Jay Clark told fans he
was hoping for a sell-out, and the fans delivered. The meet
was the second-highest attended program in school history
with 13,569 people in attendance.
“It was a lot of fun. That’s what it’s supposed to feel like
in the PMAC. That’s what we want it to feel like in the
PMAC,” said Clark.
In a meet that was tied going into the last rotation, the
LSU Tigers stunned the energized crowd with the best floor
score in school history of 49.775.
Minutes before Kiya Johnson was supposed to perform
on floor, Clark considered pulling her from the event if
they had the win. He said he asked assistant coach Garrett
Griffeth if they should pull her, but in the end, they knew
Sunisa Lee could score a 10 on beam. This would have tied
the meet up, so Clark decided to let Johnson go for it.
“Getting her back is tremendous. We’ve got to be careful.
At the end, I was looking at the score. Do we have it? Are
we taking an undue risk here?” said Clark.
Christina Desiderio led off with a career high
performance of 9.95, setting the Tigers up for what
would be a stellar rotation that won the meet. Alyona
Shchennikova followed afterwards with a 9.925.
Auburn fought until the end and kept things close with
Olympic gold-medalist Lee ending their beam rotation
with a 9.975. The final score for Auburn was 197.750.
All of this led up to LSU’s infamous “one-two punch” that
was finally back in the all-around for the Purple and Gold
after injuries kept them out for the last few meets. Haleigh
Bryant scored a 9.95, which set up Johnson’s routine that was
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the second perfect 10 of the night for the Tigers.
Earlier in the meet, the first 10 of the day was by Bryant
in an undeniably perfect vault that received high praise
on social media to end the Tigers’ first rotation. This
was Bryant’s third perfect 10 and the first in her second
collegiate season.
Aleah Finnegan made her freshman debut in the PMAC
with a graceful beam routine, reminding fans of her sister,
LSU great Sarah Finnegan, who was watching from the
stands. She captured her career high of 9.90 on beam,
which was one of LSU’s highest scores of the day on the
event.
Freshman standout KJ Johnson has yet to disappoint,
and she impressed Tiger fans with her first SEC home
performance. She set two career highs with a vault score of
9.90 and a floor score of 9.95. Clark credited the fan support
for giving her the confidence to go out and do so well.
“KJ Johnson was struggling in warmups, and she went
out there with that crowd behind her and just banged one
out. It was pretty cool,” said Clark.
Alexis Jeffrey, the controversial new addition to the
team, was in attendance and took part in the pre-meet
introductions.
Auburn gymnast Lee had a great meet with her own
perfect 10, the first of her collegiate career. Even the
LSU fans cheered for her when she was introduced and
after every rotation. Even though he found it a little
disheartening, Clark also said that he understood the hype
because of her natural talent.
Several familiar faces with a fan following of their own were
spotted in the PMAC on Saturday. Former LSU gymnastics
Coach D-D Breaux and current women’s basketball Coach
Kim Mulkey showed up to support the Tigers, along with LSU
President William Tate and his wife Kim.