re: Remove

Savannah Schoenherr,,, A Grad Transfer From Florida Gators.

So word on the street is the girl on the left is sage not Elena. Also a whole lot girls are following sage as well. Next year just got super interesting! Still won’t win it all unless we change leaps though.

I konw that rumor was that the other girl was Sage, but that 100% looks like Elena to me. The Savannah news is great, though! I think a huge asset on vault, bars, and beam. If Jay plays his cards right and isn't too deferential too super seniors (again, like, even though Kiya is good at bars, she might not be in the 6 best here, given that she rarely scored above 9.8 - and, it wasn't just lineup position, since Jeffrey showed an ability to get a 9.9 in that spot). And there is no way Alyona should be anywhere near the bars lineup at this point - I really do hate that for her, but it just is what it is. The lineup I could see is Tatum, Cowan, Schoenherr, Jeffrey, Finnegan (new dismount), Bryant.

This summer, the focus needs to be BEAM. That is what will always make or break a team, and especially this team. THe consistency improved this year, but we should have much better routines next year. I think ideally Savannah could lead off, then hopefully Beard, KJ (or someone new), leading to Bryant, Johnson, Finnegan. That's a winning combination.

For vault, the options are nearly endless, but I say you don't make it unless you have a 10.0 start. I think KJ (double), Schennikova/Finnegan/Hall/Hoffman, Brock, Shoenherr, Kiya, Haleigh. I love Aleah's vault, but if sticking is easier for others, It hink that's the way to go.

Floor - I was impressed wiht Ballard as lead off, so I'll tenatively leave that. I don't know that this is th elineup we'd start with, but this is what I'd end the season with:

Ballard, Hall/Schennikova, KJ, Finnegan, Bryant, Johnson.

Jay has really knocked it out of the park with these pickups from the portal. His recruiting is really insane. Hope we use the talent wisely next season.

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So word on the street is the girl on the left is sage not Elena. Also a whole lot girls are following sage as well. Next year just got super interesting! Still won’t win it all unless we change leaps though.

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I don’t know who Sage is, but I’ve read some comments wondering if that was her. I never did think that looked like Elena though!

Reddit Gymnastics had quite the discussion on LSU line ups yesterday. Some of their comments were food for thought. Jay and coaches will need to be on their game with who they place in line ups.

LINK

Gymnastics took some tips from Kim Mulkey and women’s basketball and stacked the roster..lol! I know Jay has always been a good recruiter though. Excited for the future for both teams!

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Jay and coaches will need to be on their game with who they place in line ups.

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This, for sure. Assuming people don't get injured, their job is really going to be testing out lineups during season to see what is the ideal 6 on each event (I still would exclude beam from this logic though, cause I'm not sure we will have more than 6 great options there). I also would limit some injury prone athletes to less events (absolutely no need for Alyona to do AA, I'd only focus on her floor, which has been consistent and scoring well; we probably need Kiya the most on beam, so if she is having trouble with pain, I'd limit her to that).

I do worry a little because not all of the coaches decisions have made sense in the past, despite the success they managed to obtain this last season.

I think the ideal lineups for champs finals, considering scoring potential (i.e. best form) and assuming everyone healthy, would be:

vt: KJ (leadoff assuming she keeps the full), chase and Jillian (best 1.5s on the team imo), Aleah, Haleigh, Kiya
ub: Jeffrey, Tatum/Cowan, Coen (have you seen her pirouette on low bar and stick hability?), Aleah (if they figure out the dismount), Sav, Haleigh
beam: Jeffrey (without the standing front tuck tho), Kai, Haleigh, Beard, Kiya, Aleah
floor: Jillian, Alyona, KJ, Aleah, Haleigh, Kiya

Sierra and Elena have been great pieces for us, but depth is going to be real next season... We do have the potential to create a winning team.

LSU is going to have A LOT of options to choose from and its going to be a great problem to have

I only have two concerns regarding next season

1) Lineups in general. It sounds harsh but there are many routines that are going to have to take a backseat for better routines/routines with more upside. Seniority/favorites cannot interfere with putting out the best lineups possible. But... hopefully with all this depth they are able to rotate much more to keep kids fresh while also giving that depth experience/opportunities.

2) Beam still has questions. Even with the addition of Sav and Hoffman along with the incoming freshmen, there needs to be an intervention on beam with changes. Arenas is not going to cut it in the lineup, so they will need to find a reliable lead off routine. Routine construction has to change for some, no rotating leaps. They have to maximize scores on this event to win a national title. They really need this lineup to score as close to a 49.500 as possible... While we can all agree beam was much more stable and steady this year, we have to elevate the routine quality on this event. Getting Kiya back should help with this partly. There needs to be better focus on execution of leaps. LSU got hammered at nationals for this.