re: Remove

Here's the interview I found regarding Jay's comments.

Link to Interview

I would assume that he means that no senior is competing the AA and that the scoring potential among the sophomores and freshman is a little higher than the seniors, mainly on beam and floor. Edwards on vault, only Sami on bars, Reagan and Christina locks on beam (although Sami and Bridget will fight for a spot), and I only see Christina (and maybe Reagan) on floor. The sophomores (Kiya, Kai, Alyona) when healthy can possibly bring in higher scores than the seniors. And the incoming freshman will contribute some high scores. Haleigh is excellent on vault, bars, and floor. Olivia Dunne is beautiful on beam and floor. Elena's strength is vault, but she can be good on bars and floor as well.

Thanks for the replies. I just hope the injuries are minimal, and the team reaches their potential. I hope the girls can get in the gym sooner than later! Can't wait for January!!

Lexie priessman was as well. She was a consistent 9.925-9.95 scorer. McKenna was always over a 9.9 on floor. These are examples of specialists who were high impacts. Campbell is an example of this on beam

I’m not saying kids who do two or three events can’t score well but most of the current kids have been in the same range of scores their entire three years. You just aren’t going to jump from 9.85 to 9.95 after being in the same score range for 3 years.

We need more high impact scoring to complement Kiya next year. Those high 9.9s are needed to compete for a title. Now I think we could maximize our routines scores with better routine construction.

The more kids training AA gives us more depth. Unless you have the correct mix of specialists to balance out each event. Our senior class this coming year really didn't train vault hard except for Edwards. Durante stepped in because we literally had no one else to turn to with the injuries. Desiderio was training some but has struggled with her injuries. All scholarship incoming freshmen will train AA. Having that depth is what we need. I only anticipate Bryant being the only freshmen doing AA her freshmen season. Olivia could potentially. I think Arenas sticks with vault, bars and floor but will train balance beam just for depth purposes.

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A floor lineup of Desiderio, Dunne, Bryant, Johnson, Rivers, and one of either Erenas, Campbell, or a healthy Alyona would be arguably the best floor lineup in the NCAA next year.

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The vaulting could be just as sick. Kiya Johnson, Kai Rivers (doing her DTY), Sarah Edwards, Haleigh Bryant, Arenas, and Dunne/Ferrer/Ryan/Alyona/Rau

I am interested in where Alyona is with a full offseason. Her vault was looking really nice in practice. Arenas will likely be asked to upgrade her vault to 1.5. I am not sure they touch Dunne on vault, although they may work with her on a 1.5 and see where it goes. Vault is the one event where you do want to try to push the envelope with difficulty as long as you can put the vaults to your feet.

Yes routine construction ! If they could change Desiderio’s beam routine and take out that switch half or whatever it’s called she could score higher. She scored higher when she was 4th in the lineup. They changed her floor and it was much better. Again injuries held that back too. I think the beam lineup will be changed a lot I’m thrilled we’ll have so much depth this year too.

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Let’s play hypotheticals. Say that Kiya, Haleigh, Sarah, and Kai are four locks on vault. Maddie and Bailey both have 10.0 SV vaults. Do you risk it with these vaults or do you go with a much safer full with Elena, Alyona, Kamryn, or Chase? I’m assuming the latter four only compete fulls. Of course I’m assuming too that Bailey is back healthy and happy.

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If Rau's 1.5 is still out of control give me a clean stuck full everyday over a messy uncontrolled 1.5. I do think Rau will be much better next year getting a full offseason with bob, she was rushed into this and not ready this year. What better will translate to, I am not sure yet. I am all for doing difficulty but it doesn't do a whole lot if it isn't executed decently. Chase has a 1.5 vault, although I have not seen her vault in over a year. She is coming off an injury, I don't know if she competes right away.

Alyona is expected to put in a 1.5 vault at some point but I will wait and see how that looks. I am not going to say much on Bailey until I see her back vaulting again. She does provide a 10.0 vault though

I also expect Elena to upgrade at some point. I want to have as many 10.0 vaults as possible but LSU needs to put the vaults out there that would score the highest, even if its a downgraded vault. If Elena or Olivia Dunne has a stuck full most days and is hitting a 9.85/9.875, give me that over an out of control upgraded vault. The other 4 vaulter "locks" that you mentioned should be consistent 9.85+ or 9.9 + vaulters. We have the foundation in place, its piecing the more consistent and higher scoring vaulters in the remaining two spots.

Honestly if we can get one more "good" 10.0 vault, I am perfectly fine with a clean consistent full leading off the lineup. 5/6 spots being 10.0 vaults is more than plenty. I think Olivia breaks into the lineup early. I think she looked much better on vault this JO season than Arenas but Arenas has a more accomplished career with a higher difficulty vault going back to elite. Its really anyones game IMO, the dramatic increase in depth and competition could potentially push this next group to the next level. We lacked much competition in these spots last year.

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Playing hypotheticals again.

Say the beam locks are Desiderio, Dunne, Johnson, Campbell, and Shchennikova.

Do you go with Bryant, Rivers, Dean, or Durante for the final spot? Bryant’s leaps are better but Dean and Durante have the experience? Kai didn’t score below a 9.85 in her three beam routines this past year. Haleigh has a ton of JO experience, being a two time Nastia Liukin Cup winner, but for sake of argument, let’s ignore that for now.

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As of now I do not have Shchennikova as a lock although her upside on the event is higher than some of the current starters. She did not have a lot of reps this year before competing so I think she will be much better with an offseason to train and to polish back up on this event. The one thing she needs to work on is her confidence, which wasn't always the best as an elite on beam. She will hit her skills but sometimes second guess herself and she will have a check on a skill for no reason. If she can up her confidence I think DD ideally wants her on this event because of her artistry and unique skills and presentation. For me I think this is the. wildcard routine.

They need to remove the switch half combos out of Kiya and Desiderio's routines. I can live with Campbell doing it. While Kiya can hit it sometimes, she would be much better off doing an easier series. I think changing that series on both of those routines would raise both of their scores. Desiderio has never hit the split on those leaps completely so we are putting deductions in her routines before she even starts. That is more of a coaching issue than an athlete issue. That just isn't smart skill selection.

Dunne will definitely make this event, her artistry, toe point and overall flow/execution is probably the best on beam out of the incoming freshmen. it should score really really well provided we have good routine construction. They will probably keep her JO routine but the need to find new leaps for her.

I think Bryant is going to be in this lineup, she is really good on this event. She probably would have won the beam title at the NL cup before the dismount mistake. Bryant points her toes and has better extended leaps than Dean and Durante. On the flip side, Dean and Durante have a lot of experience and is reliable most of the time. Both usually are able to provide steady routines in the 9.825-9.875 range It will be up to DD if she wants to play safe on this event or go with youth with a higher upside of scoring.

Kai has steadily improved her beam in her later JO years but has to work on the leaps. I don't know if its the routine we want in there but its a nice reliable backup right now. They could improve her routine score if we remove her rotating leap, thats just not a skill she hits well.

I predict it ends up looking like- Desiderio, Durante (or Dean), Bryant, Dunne, Johnson, and then Campbell. I just think Bryant will be too good to leave out this lineup. While it may be cruel to bench a 2/3 year rotation starter, if someone is better than DD needs to put them in the lineup. Alyona is the one to watch though, that routine when hit could bring in a very big score when she hits it.


Jay and DD will have some very big decisions to make as the young kids could potentially upgrade certain routines we bring back.

From a Potential scoring standpoint, the highest scoring potential lineup would be Desiderio, Alyona, Bryant, Dunne, Johnson, and Campbell.

I’m looking forward to the competition though. That is what is going to help push the kids even further.

Honestly I would start Dean before Durante after last season. Bridget was much more reliable than Sami. Sami seemed to come off the beam more than Bridget and lacked Bridget’s confidence.
As far as vault I see what you’re saying about a cleaner full scoring better than a wacky 1.5 but from sec’s and onwards to nationals it is really hard to score over a 9.85 with a full even if perfect (finnegan) so I would like to see 6 1.5’s just for that reason alone.

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Honestly I would start Dean before Durante after last season. Bridget was much more reliable than Sami. Sami seemed to come off the beam more than Bridget and lacked Bridget’s confidence.

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I had Sami or Dean competing for the 2nd spot in the lineup but you are right. Dean is much more steady than Sami although has more form issues and has a lower scoring potential. While Sami can score higher she has her issues with major balance checks and is. less reliable than Dean. Wasn't saying Durante would beat out Dean but thats the spot DD will have to make a decision on. Does she go for steady with lower scoring potential or less steady with higher potential? There is a risk verse reward.

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As far as vault I see what you’re saying about a cleaner full scoring better than a wacky 1.5 but from sec’s and onwards to nationals it is really hard to score over a 9.85 with a full even if perfect (finnegan) so I would like to see 6 1.5’s just for that reason alone.

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I understand this as well although in Rau's case for example, that vault would have been shredded up by judges in the post season. That routine is an example of leotard scoring. Her vault was far messier and uncontrolled than Ruby's vault yet was somehow getting 9.8's with it while Ruby got similar scores for over powering her vault with a step forward (with better form). It. simply was not a realistic score during the regular season. If we are going to throw out a 10.0 vault, it has to be somewhat executed decently, if not there is literally no purpose. If Rau gets her vault to be. tighter in the air and have more landings where she takes a step forward, then it is a much different story.

Finnegan scored extremely well with her full her senior season, even with a couple of vaults that had a minor hop. If our options doing the full aren't sticking their landings then I agree with you. If we have kids who can give us a stuck clean. full most of the time then I think we could survive with one or two full vaults. Especially when. you look at the back end of the lineup with Edwards, Bryant, and Johnson who can go 9.95. The bigger issue during the post season is the 1.5 vaults have to stick more landings. If our better vaulters aren't capitalizing then its all for naught. This is where OU separated themselves, there 1.5 vaults were being stuck while we didn't. We didn't do that at four on the floor last season.


LSU's vault scoring (which included multiple fulls) in the post season has scored as good or better than everyone else in the country (outside of OU) over the last few years.We are lagging behind OU on beam though.