re: Remove

Heartwarming post from Lilly

quote:

---

I did it.

A recap of my year: wrist surgery, broken toe, shortened workouts due to the pandemic, two new teammates, a broken foot, two sinus infections, a stomach ulcer, terrible panic attacks, my backhand spring fear came back, scratched the buckeye qualifier due to my mental health, and overall an extreme challenging journey that took ultimate dependence on God, I did it. I want to thank Mary Lee, my parents, my coaches, and everyone who made this meet and my year possible, I cannot express enough gratitude.

My goal this meet was to compete and have fun, and I can say from the bottom of my heart I did that. And I want everyone who watched the meet today to know that nobody is perfect, and that training takes hard work and determination. But it’s not over, and as I celebrate this accomplishment, I look forward to the excitement of the future. Each and everyday is a new opportunity, and I will attack it with every bit of joy and resilience I have in me.

---

Really happy for her. She has gotten so much taller too.

Yes, I have been following her for several years. I mentioned her to TB but at the time she was still at home training in her club. She is a possibility for sure!

Anyone else watch this a million times over? I've come to the conclusion that this ranks up there with one of the single best pieces of gymnastics I've ever seen. The float. The height. The toepoint. It's what gymnastics dreams are made of.

The first road to nationals NQS rankings are out. I am pleased with our current third place ranking overall. However, when you look at the individual gymnasts making up the NQS, you see that we are not in a great place on uneven bars or balance beam (beam, especially, with Dean being our highest ranked athlete - though she has done well this year). Its going to be hard to compete against OK, FL, and even some of the other good, but slightly lower ranked teams (like Minn) if this scoring is indicative of what we'll see at nationals.

quote:

---

Ella Kate Parker is from West Monroe. She is the junior who won gold AA at the Winter Cup yesterday. She currently trains with Lilly Lippeatt in Cincinnati.

---

The LSU draw for these two makes sense considering this is the gym Lexie Priessman came from, especially after seeing the success she had during her 4 years as a Tiger

Assuming Brock back on vault and bars, Alyona on beam for Durante.

Floor is what interests me the most, do they keep Ballard out there or do they put Campbell and Desiderio with Alyona, Edwards, Bryant and Kiya.

Campbell worries me a bit because she is clearly barely hanging on with her body. Ballard has been very solid outside that one routine, although I wished we gave her the early part of the season to get more seasoned. I'm still very conflicted on Desiderio in the floor lineup but just hope for the best. She almost came up short on that 2nd pass again last meet.

Bars is by far my biggest concern going into post season. Judges in our away meets are not so forgiving when it came to form on those dismounts. Showed in the scores.

I would like to see Ballard in the floor lineup. I wish they would change her leap series there though, as she is not quite hitting the ring position and it is quite noticeable. I'm very conflicted on both Campbell and Desiderio. Campbell has always been steady before this year but she is clearly having difficulty here.

Bars.. there's not much to say. I really wish we could use double tuck dismounts. There are some beautiful routines on other teams this year which just do the double tuck. Like Andi Li of Cal, Sara Ulias of UCLA, Mara Titarsolej of LIU..

The SEC Championship in my opinion. Normally everyone is on a level playing field with judging.

Also, if you guys could have only one senior back next year, who would it be? Me...I’d take Edwards back in a heartbeat! She basically missed her junior year because of her ankle. She brings two legit 9.90 scores, vault and floor. Just think she would bring more back to the team than the others.

quote:

---

which has more prestige, the SEC regular season title or the SEC championship meet title?

---

SEC championship meet title means more in the grand scheme of things. The regular season title is cool and all but really means nothing if you can’t seal the deal at SEC championships Rather than individually beating each team head to head over the course of several weeks, SEC Champs shows that you truly are the best team in the league that night when everyone competes against each other in front of the same judges in the same environment. Home scoring is less of a factor here since there’s 4 judges per event so it’s harder to get a higher average score (for example 3/4 judges need to give you a 10 to earn a perfect score on any event) and the judges see 64 routines each over the course of the day so it truly ranks the routines and teams based on their performance that night and how they’re able to handle the pressure vs over the course of 2 months.

quote:

---

if you guys could have only one senior back next year, who would it be?

---

In terms of who can contribute huge scores to the team next year, Sarah Edwards is the only answer I think should be considered for this question given that she basically missed her entire junior season with an ankle injury and she could help us on both vault and floor next year with her difficulty and leadership. Plus she has hit every routine she’s competed so far this season which is a first for her. If I’m going based on my emotions, I would love to see Olivia Gunter back next year. Knowing that she only exhibitioned on floor once as a freshman then ruptured her achilles right before nationals, and spent all of her sophomore season recovering before finally cracking the floor lineup her junior year, I would love to see what she’d be able to do next year when she’s 100% healthy and the best version of herself all around. Seeing how much she’s improved on bars (based on training videos) and on floor (her exhibition routine vs junior year vs senior year gym 101) I would love for her to get the opportunity to fight for a spot in the lineup next year when she’s not being overshadowed by Dean, Desiderio or Campbell on floor. Granted it may be tougher because of the talented freshman class we have coming in but she is one of the toughest girls I know and has been through a lot since coming to LSU and I would love for her to close the chapter of her gymnastics career having gotten to compete one last time in the PMAC and NAIL her floor routine