A tight one comes to the Blender
LSU brought the regular season to a close eight days ago with a 198.250-196.075 win over North Carolina in the PMAC. Tonight, the #3 Tigers are just down the interstate on a podium to take on #7 Alabama, #6 Kentucky and #4 Florida at the 2024 SEC Gymnastics Championship at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. LSU earned the top seed and chose the Olympic order. The evening session begins at 7:00 p.m. and will be broadcast on SEC Network with John Roethlisberger and Sam Peszek on the call and Taylor Davis reporting from the floor. Individual apparatus streams are available on SECN+, but they shouldn’t be necessary this year with the new “double dual” format that ESPN used at the Collegiate Quad back in January. If you only want to focus on LSU, though, use them.
2024 Evening Session Teams’ SEC Results since 2018 (2020 championship canceled):
LSU won the SEC Championship in 2018 and 2019 as part of their threepeat, finished 2nd in 2021, finished 5th in 2022 and finished 3rd in 2023. Florida finished 2nd to LSU in 2018 and 2019, finished 3rd in 2021 and won the 2022 and 2023 titles. Kentucky finished 4th in 2018, 7th in 2019, 4th in 2021, 6th in 2022 and 4th in 2023, tying their best finish at SECs in program history. Alabama finished 3rd in 2018 and 2019, won the 2021 championship and finished 2nd in 2022 and 2023.
Brief Look at Afternoon Session
There are four other teams competing in the SEC Championship, and while it’s highly unlikely any of them win the team title, it’s quite possible at least one gymnast from this session earns a share of an SEC title. This won’t be an in-depth preview so much as a quick glance at how these teams have been doing and who has a good shot at winning an SEC title. Arkansas, Missouri, Auburn and Georgia will compete in the afternoon session on SEC Network starting at 2:30 p.m.
#8 (#18 nationally) Georgia begins on floor. They’ve looked better in their last few meets compared to earlier in the season. They’re looking to score well enough to earn the last seeded spot in the NCAA tournament. More than that, they’re looking to avoid a third straight 8th-place finish. Lily Smith should be in contention for SEC Freshman of the Year, though Florida’s Anya Pilgrim might have that award locked up already. Smith is one of the strongest contenders for the bars title at the SEC Championship with a 9.950 bars NQS and a season low of 9.850 on the event. Among SEC teams, they rank last on vault [49.165], 7th on bars [49.335], 7th on beam [49.320] and last on floor [49.395].
#7 (#14 nationally) Auburn begins on beam. I talked about them two weeks ago, so the only update is that they set a new season high road score Saturday with a 197.575. They’re pretty set as a seeded team, so this meet is about having good momentum going into the tournament. Cassie Stevens is one of the four 2023 SEC vault champions, and she should be a solid contender for that title again. Among SEC teams, they rank 7th on vault [49.240], last on bars [49.270], 4th on beam [49.420] and 7th on floor [49.470].
#6 (#13 nationally) Missouri begins on bars. Mizzou has done decently since beating LSU back in January. Their scores have been pretty good, and they’ve had program record rotations on every event except beam. They also finished their team slam with 10s on bars and floor. They’re looking for another solid meet before the tournament since their seed is pretty solid. The Tigers have solid championship contenders on all four events. Jocelyn Moore, another 2023 SEC vault champion, is still a great vaulter and is coming off a 10.0 on floor in the regular season finale. Mara Titarsolej got the program’s first 10.0 on bars back in February. Sienna Schreiber got the program’s third ever 10.0 on beam on her second senior night, and has only gone below 9.900 on the event twice. Among SEC teams, they rank 6th on vault [49.340], 5th on bars [49.405], last on beam [49.265] and 3rd on floor [49.575].
#5 (#12 nationally) Arkansas begins on vault. The Razorbacks have had the best regular season in program history with new records left and right. Their regular season finale saw them post the first 198 in program history. Arkansas is hosting one of the four regionals this year, so they don’t need to worry about too much. It’s about winning the session, pushing for the postseason, and maybe upsetting one of the evening session teams if possible. The most likely contender for an SEC title will come from their floor team. Frankie Price is the best floor performer on the team with an NQS of 9.950 and just one sub-9.9 score all season. Among SEC teams, they rank 5th on vault [49.355], 6th on bars [49.355], 6th on beam [49.330] and tied for 4th on floor [49.565].
#4 (#7 nationally) Alabama (start on floor):
Alabama was a team many expected to have a strong regular season, and that didn’t go as planned. Even before they lost Makarri Doggette, Alabama was struggling with consistency. However, in their two meets since losing 198.325-197.325 to LSU, the Crimson Tide have scored 198.000 at home and 198.025 at Oklahoma. If there is anything Alabama does well, it’s show up at SECs. In 2019, the Tide finished 3rd despite starting in the afternoon session. They are always a threat to take the title.
If Alabama is going to win, they need Luisa Blanco to have a meet reminiscent of her 2021 SEC Championship performance, normal results on floor, bars and beam, and one of their best vault rotations of the season. On the individual side, Blanco is in solid contention for the all-around title and should contend for the bars and beam titles. Gabby Gladieux won a share of the 2023 SEC vault title despite doing a Yurchenko Full, but her highest-scoring event is floor.
Among SEC teams, Alabama ranks 4th on vault [49.380], 2nd on bars [49.555], 5th on beam [49.410] and 6th on floor [49.530].
Alabama’s main goals beyond winning the title are to keep ahead of Denver and to try and jump Kentucky for the #6 overall seed in the tournament.
#3 (#6 nationally) Kentucky (start on bars):
As if last year wasn’t good enough, this year has been even better for the Wildcats. Since losing to LSU 198.125-197.600 on January 19th, Kentucky has broken their program record twice, joined the 198 club, finished their team slam and hit program highs on vault and floor. There is one hitch: SECs have been the bane of Kentucky’s existence. They’ve struggled to compete at a high level at SECs and have never finished inside the top 3. This feels like the year that changes, though. Their last three meet scores were 198.100 on senior night, 197.800 at UNC and 197.925 at the Kidney Care Women’s Gymnastics Championship in Nashville.
There are two gymnasts on this roster that are favorites to take home SEC titles. Mackenzie Wilson has scored more 10s on her front handspring front pike half vault than Haleigh Bryant has this year, and her first 10 made her the second Kentucky gymnast to ever score a 10. However, she’s gone below 9.9 four times this season including the UNC meet. The other strong contender is fifth-year senior Raena Worley. On 2/16/2020, Raena Worley fell on her vault at LSU. She hadn’t fallen before and she hasn’t fallen since. She’s sitting on a mind-numbing streak of 208 consecutive hit routines and has hit 232/233 routines in her career (h/t Drew Porche). She is one of the favorites on bars, the event on which she completed Kentucky’s team slam, and floor, the other event on which she has a 10.0. Worley and Haleigh’s AA battle could be the stuff of legends.
Among SEC teams, Kentucky ranks 3rd on vault [49.450], 3rd on bars [49.430], 3rd on beam [49.425] and 2nd on floor [49.615].
Kentucky’s main goal is to beat Florida. It’s happened once in their entire program’s history. If they do that, it’s a big win, and it probably means they finish in the top 3 if not as champions. Also, they would like to get ahead of Utah if possible so they can avoid the bloodbath that will be the Fayetteville Regional.
#2 (#4 nationally) Florida (start on beam):
Florida made an interesting decision. The 2 seed at SECs usually chooses to start on bars, but Florida decided to start on beam. This isn’t the only interesting decision they’ve made recently. Since beating LSU 198.150-197.950 on February 23, the Gators have gone 198.225 at Kentucky, 197.700 at the Masters Classic at Nebraska and 197.900 on senior night. Those last two meets didn’t have Leanne Wong in the all-around, a decision made to give her rest for this meet. It doesn’t matter what it is, though, it’s still the same dangerous Florida team as always.
Trinity Thomas is gone, but the Gators have other threats at SEC titles. The aforementioned Leanne Wong is the third member of the epic battle for the AA title and is a contender on everything, especially bars and beam. Anya Pilgrim is the strongest contender for SEC Freshman of the Year, and she could threaten on all four events.
Among SEC teams, Florida ranks 2nd on vault [49.485], 4th on bars [49.415], 1st on beam [49.530] and tied for 4th on floor [49.565].
Florida’s main goal is to win their third straight title. It doesn’t matter how things work out nationally since they should have the #4 overall seed locked down, and they’re one of the four regional hosts this year.
#1 (#3 nationally) LSU (start on vault):
Among SEC teams, LSU ranks 1st on vault [49.490], 1st on bars [49.560], 2nd on beam [49.505] and 1st on floor [49.695]. A 49.650 or higher would give LSU the NCAA floor NQS record, tying or beating 2019 UCLA’s 49.720.
If you’ve followed the team all year, you know Haleigh Bryant is a contender for everything and you know Aleah Finnegan and Konnor McClain are strong contenders for individual titles, too. There’s so much that I could talk about with individual titles and the like, but it all comes down to the team title. LSU can’t move out of the top 3 in the nation.
The biggest thing that is worth keeping an eye on is whether Alexis Jeffrey competes. From what I’ve seen and read, it doesn’t appear she participated in podium training yesterday. That would mean shifts to the lineups on both bars and beam. Otherwise, expect LSU to throw out their best on every event. I’m getting ready to head on down to the Blender for the first session and words are escaping me because of the pure hype. It’s the SEC Championship at home in front of a very partisan LSU faithful for a team looking to snatch up its first title since it last graced this venue. They need to do their normal and stay calm. This is their night, so let’s hope they snatch it.