re: Remove

You mean they always have floor routines with the least amount of difficulty possible that get over scored because they find a way to make them go viral?

True but they play within the rules.

Does everyone get a new floor routine each year? How is the choreography looking? I know a lot of people were disappointed in some of last year’s routines. As well as some of them being retreads.

I know for a fact that Christina has the same routine as last season (Olivia Gunter told me when I asked her about it). Given how much CD loved that routine and didn’t get to compete it much last season, I don’t blame her for wanting to keep it for this year

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Given the situation with COVID and past injuries, do you think Jay will push the vault lineup to have at least 5 10.0 SV? Right now I see three locks: Johnson, Bryant, and Edwards. Rau’s vault (landing and form) never really got on track. Kai is slowing coming back from surgery. Brock and Ryan each have competed the Y1.5. Do you think it may be better to go with clean fulls (Alyona, Erenas, Dunne) this year? Nibbs and Durante are vaults you could use as a filler, but you don’t want to have to count their scores in the team totals.

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Haleigh, Edwards and Kiya alone make this a pretty lethal event for us based on the quality of the vaults.

Alyona, Brock, Arenas, Kai Rau are all training 10.0 vaults. Dunne and Ryan have very nice full as well. I think we could see LSU start out with 3 or 4 10.0 vaults then slowly upgrade as the season goes. I guess it depends on how the vaults are coming along in training.

Like the vault Alyona did Thursday was probably a 9.9 quality style vault although she is capable of more adding another half twist.

Nibbs, D'Antonio, and Durante are gonna be pure depth, I don't think they have the quality of vaults LSU needs to be competitive.

Sarah Edwards took the entire fall her freshmen season to get a quality 1.5 out there. We still got time to get those other vaults perfected/improved.


Sierra Ballard, is training both a full and a 1.5, although I'm not expecting her to be competing on vault. Last I heard, Elena was only doing a full and a double which was strange to me. Maybe because that was what she use to train and compete but I figured she would do a 1.5. I don't think they have a final plan with her yet but I was a little bit surprised to hear she was still doing a double. That would be interesting to see, I haven't seen her do a DTY in years.

Baton Rouge won’t host another Regional until 2026. Thought it would be sooner.

Some highlights of the intrasquad are up on IG. The freshmen are definitely gonna help those bar scores this season.

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PRAYING that the judges FINALLY reward Sami during her senior season on bars for her lines and polished form and technique and give her all the tens she deserves. Same thing with Reagan on beam and Sarah Edwards on vault. It made me a little sad how close Ruby and Kennedi got to getting a 10 on bars and same with Ruby on vault, but they just didn’t get there

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I don't think Sami gets a 10 her senior season unless she fixes the leg separation on the pak salto, its usually noticeable but nothing major. I just see her as more of a routine 9.875-9.925 type scorer with maybe a 9.95 here and there. Very clean, just a couple of small things in her routines. If it isn't the dismount, sometimes she will catch her release a little close to the bar but outside of that she points her toes and she hits her handstand positions.

Campbell definitely can get a 10 on beam, no question. Her form and execution is good enough when she hits.

Edwards can get one too on vault. The vault from the Auburn meet this year was by far the cleanest she has ever done. If she sticks that and keeps her form (mostly knees), she can get it.

I never expected Ruby to get a 10 in college, but she dramatically improved her form on every event when she came to LSU. As great as an elite athlete she was, she had small form issues and leg separations when she came to LSU that Jay really cleaned up dramatically in her time here. She really blossomed in her later years at LSU. I fully expect Alyona Shchennikova to follow that same route at LSU and just get better with time.

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Wow Utah just had a stellar freshman retire...halfway thru preseason....so strange

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I'm sad to hear about Deanne Soza, wonderful young lady and comes from a great family.

She dealt with a lot of nagging injuries over the years and was hurting a bit even this year when she was competing. I know LSU was in touch with her at one point before.


Btw I updated the recruiting targets, most 23 kids but there are names I am hearing more of right now for that class.

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Interesting recruiting year when many top ‘22 and even one top ‘21 still uncommitted. In the past, this usually meant waiting to see if they could get into Stanford but that doesn’t seem likely for all these top gymnasts. Do they all plan to do like Trinity Thomas and wait till their senior year to officially commit?

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Trinity if I remember correctly committed in the spring of her junior year but she came to college a year early, She enrolled that fall later in the year.

Some kids can commit and wait till the last minute because they are that good. Sarah Finnegan committed very late. A kid like Leann Wong can wait as long as she pleases because a talent like that will always have a spot for them for pretty much most schools. Other kids don't have that luxury.

Its not too weird to see 22 kids not committed yet. I am happy about the new recruiting rules as it gives the athletes to take the time to properly evaluate a school that fits them and for coaches to truly evaluate where in athlete is with their gymnastics and physical condition. Getting commitments from 7th and 8th graders was absurd because half the time no one would know where they would be 5 years later. Some are really good, others are ridden with injuries and not very usable in college.