re: LSU Gymnastics Recruiting Thread (2024 and 2025 Recruiting Classes)

I feel like the obvious top 6 is:
Leanne
Jordan
Aleah
Jade
Grace
Mya Lauzon.

Jade or Leanne will most likely win but in my eyes it should be Aleah. No one else on that list has had as historic of a career at their respective universities as she has

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I don’t think what Aleah has done is more historic than Jade, especially in the context of Jade’s Olympic and ncaa success and the fact that she has really propelled Oregon State to a higher level of success than they enjoyed previously

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Stats don’t lie: Oregon State has not improved at all in the rankings since Jade arrived. They’ve remained in the mid teen range year after year going as far back as 2012. Jade is the only one having success within that program and the rest of the team continues to underperform year after year. She stands out because she is olympian on an outlier lower ranked team. Look at it in comparison to where Suni brought Auburn to in her 2 years there (overscoring aside). Others at Auburn got the high scores Suni did. Jade is the only one at Oregon State getting 9.95 consistently.

That’s why I think Aleah has the impact to keep up with the rest of them and even win. Yes LSU has always been a top team (same argument can be made about Leanne) but look at the scoring level increase across the board for all of our girls from 2021/2022 season until now and how the team has improved year after year since then. Yes we had a 2-3 year team slump during/post covid when DD left but look at how they are ALL doing now and how everyone speaks about LSU in comparison to how they have in the past. People are finally agreeing that LSU is a front runner the national title year after year beginning last season as opposed to it just being our circle hoping and believing it for us

lol. I think straight hyperbole is a bit much - I mostly meant in terms of elevating that program to one that is now talked about among non diehard gym fans and/or OR state fans. But if you did the analysis on the stats and finishes, then I won’t argue with you over them because I thought about it, but didn’t have time to qualitatively vet my statement.

My main point is Jade’s Olympic success and her NCAA success on an individual level, including the publicity she has brought to Oregon state, is, in my opinion, likely to be seen as a stronger argument for her to win, than Aleah specifically. That is no fault of
Aleah’s, but just speaks to Jade’s strengths and the status of that program both before and after Jade (simply put, no one would really speak about Oregon state at all without Jade, but people certainly would still talk about LSU without Aleah, if the other parts of our roster remained consistent). Whether her non-ncaa feats should weigh in is up for question, but I have no doubt that voters will have that in the back of their mind as well.

That being said, I absolutely agree that Jordan Bowers should win. I don’t necessarily like her or her gymnastics, but man, is she consistent and precise and clean and has been a driving force e of that team who has had phenomenal and nearly unmatched success in the time that she has been there. I agree with comments on Leanne as well, but I think people will see her determination and two Olympic alternate stints and weigh that in as well (again whether they should or not is open to question but these judges don’t operate in a vacuum). I would put Leanne as less likely than either Jordan or Jade, but perhaps slightly more likely than Aleah.

And lest I be accused of being down on Aleah, I am absolutely not - I hope she could or would win! I just think it’s probably not likely, especially with Jade in the mix and LSU also having other heavy hitters (eg Bryant and to some extent Chio).

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Also AAI takes into account academic standing to some degree (GPAs of the finalists used to be published). I don’t know the academic standing of the other girls but Aleah is one of the few on the LSU team who has not been on the list for academic honors

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I believe the award id limited to seniors only. I don't believe Haleigh would have been eligible this year even if she had remained healthy as she would be a grad student.

NQS should be going up to a 197.825
could still improve it if we get higher than a 197.3 next week at Auburn.

New rankings.
Oklahoma 197.965
LSU. 197.825

LINK

Anyone know why Corn replaced Kaliya the other night? I would assume it was because our score was trending very high/the win was not in doubt, but when I rewatched the television broadcast I saw like one of her arms was inside her warmup while she was high-fiving (very random I know, I am not sure how I noticed), so wanted to see if anyone heard anything? She doesn’t do a ton of shoulder stuff so I would imagine it didn’t have anything to do with any type of shoulder injury and more just preserving her for post season, but was curious if those in the know had heard anything.

I’m not worried about Florida. They’ve been up and down so much this season that if we just do our job and go above 197.3, we’ll stay ahead of them in the rankings no matter what I believe

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The human spirit and determination plays a major role in accomplishing goals.

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Speaking of which: this team know that the SEC Regular Season Title is on the line this weekend. Win and we get at least a share of it. Tie or lose and it goes to OU so I have no doubt that with the momentum they’ve built these past few weeks and are trying to continue to build heading into SEC Championships, including coming off the high of last week’s program record, they’re going to be pretty motivated to match or best that score this weekend

The quad meet doesn't count as a sec meet. So as long as we win this week, we win the regular SEC championship.