Fittingly, the Revolutionaries will not be televised
Hopefully this is a little smoother than last year’s edition.
#3 LSU looks to put up a big road score in a meet that’s just a little down the road. Last week, the Tigers won 198.325-197.325 over Alabama. This evening, they head to the Raising Canes River Center for the second annual Purple and Gold Podium Challenge against #14 Auburn, #42 George Washington and #53 Texas Woman’s. The meet is scheduled to start at 6:00 p.m., though that may get pushed back if last year was any indication, and it will not be televised or streamed. Doors to the River Center open at 5:00 p.m. There hasn’t been an announcement of the rotation order, the meet format (traditional quad meet or postseason-like double dual) or the link for live scoring. I’m going to be there when doors open, so one of your best bets for live information and live scores is probably going to be my Twitter @BenSLASports. LSU is going to try and post as many videos as they can during the meet, but I’ll try to record everything and post it after the meet.
Matchup history for LSU vs the other teams
LSU is 86-18 all-time against Auburn and 45-6 in neutral sites. The last time the two teams met was literally three weeks ago when LSU won 198.300-197.100. The last time LSU and Auburn met on a neutral floor in the regular season (excluding SECs) was on 1/6/2012 at the Cancun Classic. Auburn beat LSU 194.775-192.500.
LSU is 10-0 all-time against GWU and 7-0 in neutral sites. The last time the two teams met on the same floor was in the inaugural edition of this meet last year. The Tigers beat the then-Colonials 197.700-195.125.
LSU is 16-0 against TWU all-time and is 2-0 in neutral sites. The last time the two teams met was in a quad meet in Denton in 2022 where LSU beat the Pioneers 197.625-195.450. The last time the two teams met on a neutral floor was on 1/4/2008 at the Cancun Classic where LSU beat TWU 195.725-190.900.
About #14 Auburn
Since LSU faced Auburn literally three weeks ago, this is going to be less of a full preview and more of an update of what’s happened since then. There haven’t been any major injuries that have hampered them in the time since they came to the PMAC. They beat Missouri 197.425-197.000 in their home finale the week after coming to Baton Rouge, but their most recent outing was a 197.550-196.900 loss at Georgia which gave the Bulldogs their only SEC win of the season. Auburn’s dropped in the rankings on every event since the last time we saw them. They’re 17th on vault [49.215], tied for 19th with Ball State on bars [49.225], 9th on beam [49.345] and 16th on floor [49.395].
Auburn is currently the 7 seed for SECs and would be in the afternoon session. It’s highly unlikely they move sessions, but they’d much prefer a better seed. Their NQS is currently 197.105. They’re looking to drop a 196.675 from their NQS. Their season high on the road is a 197.100 at, you guessed it, Frank Stallone the PMAC.
About #42 George Washington
Last season, GWU finished 40th in the country and 6th out of eight teams at the EAGL championship meet. Fun fact about GWU: I’ve been following what they’ve been doing since the season started. This is my first chance to catch a meet of theirs. The first thing to note about the team is that they’re competing under a new nickname: the Revolutionaries. That’s not something I’d use to describe their season, though, because it’s been quite middling. The biggest adjustment they’ve had to make came from the graduation of team legend Deja Chambliss.
I am extremely biased in saying this, but the person you should watch for is senior Kendall Whitman. I am admitting my bias in advance because I interviewed her in December for a side project I’ve been working on (link here if you’re interested). Haleigh Bryant is the best front tumbler in the country, but Kendall is probably number 2. Like Haleigh, she learned her front tumbling skills because of a mental block. Unlike Haleigh, she has a skill in the Level 10 code. Her vault, the Whitman, is a front handspring front handspring front pike half. Yes, she adds an extra part to the block, and it looks really awesome (Aly Raisman said so). Her floor work is magnificent, she’s the reigning EAGL Gymnast of the Week, and she’s an amazing person off the floor.
The Revolutionaries are 16-8 on the season and are coming off a 2nd place (out of 4) finish in a quad meet at Maryland with Central Michigan and William & Mary at which they scored a 195.675, a new season high for a road score. They rank 21st on vault [49.165], 59th on bars [48.365], 29th on beam [49.085] and 33rd on floor [49.245]. They are not a bars team, to put it simply. They are really fighting for their lives on the bubble, too.
Margie Foster-Cunningham is the longest-tenured active women’s gymnastics coach in her 39th year at the helm. She is assisted by assistant coach Stephanie Stoicovy Worrell in her ninth year and volunteer assistant coach Justin Watson in his 19th season.
About #53 TWU
TWU is not a team that compares itself to D1 teams because it isn’t. Texas Woman’s University is a coed school in Denton, though it’s over 90% women and has no men’s sports teams. The only program in Texas has won a whopping 12 national titles at the USAG level and won it most recently in 2022. Last year, the Pioneers finished 54th overall, 4th at MICs and 2nd at the USAG team finals that they hosted.
The Pioneer to watch for in this meet is senior AAI award nominee Daisy Woodring. She is the reigning USAG national champion on vault, but her floor routine is also really good. She scored a school record-tying 9.950 on the event on February 3, and she scored a school record-setting 9.950 on vault on February 23. She’s also a solid beam performer.
TWU is 4-14 on the season and is coming off a 3rd place finish at home against Oklahoma, Clemson and Penn. They put up the second best score in program history in that meet: a 196.275. They’re ranked 45th on vault [48.935], tied for 52nd with Rutgers on bars [48.670], 59th on beam [48.465] and 56th on floor [49.045]. Among USAG teams, they’re 1st on vault, 3rd on bars, 4th on beam, 4th on floor and 2nd overall.
Lisa Bowerman is in her 13th season as head coach. She is assisted by associate head coach Kristen Harold in her third season in the role and eighth overall, assistant coach Matthew DeGrandpre in his second season, and coach’s assistant Kyana George in her first season. TWU is known as a cradle of coaches for the many incredible assistants that have made stops there including current LSU assistants Garrett and Courtney McCool Griffeth.
About #3 LSU
LSU is ranked 2nd on vault [49.445], 4th on bars [49.475], 5th on beam [49.440] and 1st on floor [49.665]. LSU can make NQS history tonight. The NCAA record for highest floor NQS is from 2004 North Carolina, who had a 49.680. If LSU scored a 49.625 or better, they will break that, and if they score a 49.600 exactly, they’ll tie it. Lineup changes will happen, but I’ll let you know about any updates on Twitter. The big stuff for tonight is about NQS.
NQS-capades
This is LSU’s last opportunity to put up a strong road score before SECs. If they want a very solid chance at the top seed, they’re going to need to create a massive gap between them and Florida. The Gators are on the road and will be in the Masters Classic at Nebraska Saturday. From what I’ve gathered, Florida is going to use this as an opportunity to rest some of their gymnasts, so they probably won’t improve their performance from last week in which they maxed their NQS once again. Even better, Nebraska is infamous for having tight judging.
LSU can’t move their NQS much next week when they face UNC because of how well they’ve done at home. Tonight, they’re looking to drop a 197.225 from the Missouri meet. Here are some scoring benchmarks.
197.250: 197.890 (would also tie program NQS record set in 2018)
197.625 (score at Georgia): 197.965
197.900: 198.000
197.950 (season high road score): 198.010
198.175 (score at Arizona in 2019, last road 198): 198.055
198.325 (score last week): 198.085
198.475 or higher: 198.115
LSU should win this one, and it’ll be interesting to see how. Unfortunately, I may be one of the only people actually seeing that.