No. 20 gymnastics travels to No. 7 LSU

FAYETTEVILLE – The No. 20 University of Arkansas gymnastics team (1-4, 0-4 SEC) travels to Baton Rouge, La. to face the No. 7 LSU Tigers (7-2, 3-1 SEC). The meet is scheduled to begin 7 p.m.

Arkansas is currently ranked No. 19 on the bars in the Gyminfo Women’s Gymnastics National Event rankings, as well as No. 23 on the beam and No. 23 on the vault.

The meet will be featured on TV at a future date to be determined on CST.

Individually, junior All-American Katherine Grable is tied for ninth on the vault and No. 25 on the beam. Freshman Sydnie Dillard is No. 24 in the nation on the balance beam.

“We started the Auburn meet off with two really good rotations,” co-head coach Mark Cook said. “We started the meet on the bars and had some really nice rotations to help us score over a 49.00. Then we went to vault and had our best vault rotation of the year so far.  So the first two events were really really good, then we went to floor and the scores were a little tight but we had a mistake from one of our strongest performers on that event and it really hurt us. Then we went to the beam and had two falls right from the start and had to count one for the score, so sometimes these things happen in sports and we let a 196.00 plus score get away from us.”

Last week against No. 15 Auburn, junior Shelby Salmon took the bars title outright while All-American Grable tied for the vault and beam titles, as the No. 19 University of Arkansas gymnastics team was outscored by the Tigers 196.325-195.650.

Arkansas is looking to rebound against LSU, who leads the all-time series 5-20-1. LSU picked up a win in the last match-up at the SEC Championship meet in 2012 snapping a four meet win streak dating back to February of 2011.

LSU is returning back to their home arena after four consecutive weeks on the road, including a season high score and SEC Gymnast and Specialist of the Week honors for their performance at Missouri.

“LSU is always an interesting place to compete,” Cook said.  “It is an environment that has a lot of noise, with fans that are really involved, so you have to be able to really focus on what you’re doing. We having been practicing that in training this week, we have had distractions going on while the gymnasts are trying to perform their routine to get them better prepared for the meet. We have to be able to carry our training over to the competition and be able to focus on hitting our routines on Friday.”

Fans can follow along during the meet with live results and interactive blog. LSU will also feature a live stream on its website. Following the meet Friday, the Razorbacks will return to Barnhill Arena to host Alabama on Feb. 22.