#5 LSU Embarrasses Centenary in Season Opener

By


The bunch of idiots over at West Virginia have covid so they had to withdraw from the meet forcing LSU to find another worthy competitor. They couldn't find one so they just got Centenary. From the beginning you could tell they were the island of misfit toys of women's collegiate gymnastics. The good news is, it doesn't matter who you compete against, all that matters is your own average. 

A couple notable events from introductions are Haleigh Bryant got her name in the rafters as he was the 2021 vaulting champion. Also Aleah Finnegan and Kamryn Ryan were M.I.A. and though they didn't make an announcement, one can only assume they either have covid or were exposed to someone with covid, but I do not want to make any assumptions.

In the first rotation, no surprise Haleigh Bryant lead LSU with a score of 9.925 contributing to a team score of 49.400. On the other hand, the Centenary Ladies on managed a score of 47.350 with one of their gymnasts falling on her ass like a silly goose. An inside man was quoted on saying she didn't have a box, whatever the hell that means. But I'm not one to tolerate excuses even though she still somehow scored an 8.900 (pity points I guess). 

Over on beam, I'll give you the bad news first, Sami Durante slipped and fell right onto a bar from what I could see, however she was able to get up and walk off, but would not compete again, although I don't think she was scheduled to. Now to the good news, LSU was able to accumulate a score of 49.500, their high for this meet with Alyona Shchennikova, Haleigh Bryant, and Livvy Dunne all scoring above a 9.900, Alyona leading the pack with a 9.950. Centenary could only muster a measly 46.050 somehow. Two gymnasts received less than a 9.000, which is the first time I have ever seen something so horrific. I haven't even seen that when someone has fallen; they still get at least a 9.100. 

Now for our worst event, even though it wasn't our worst event tonight. Bridget Dean, who is usually light out on beam, fell off, but got back up like a trooper and still got a 9.900. As a team, we scored a 49.075, which I thought we did much better than that. Alyona Shchennikova, Kiya Johnson, and Haleigh Bryant were all nearly flawless, but the highest score among them was 9.875, even though I thought at least one of them should have scored at least a 9.925. Alyona and Reagan both have very difficult mounts and executed them perfectly, which alone should have gotten them a higher score. Once again, Centenary was abysmal 47.375... their best of the night. 

Finally, floor- with our worst event of the night, a 48.975, a mere 0.025 from a 49.000. But nevertheless, they were great with nothing less than a 9.725. Shoutout to freshman KJ Johnson for leading LSU on floor with the only 9.900 or greater on floor, her second 9.900 of the night, first coming on vault. To me, there were not major fumbles or slipups, I guess the judges just weren't that impressed with them. Obviously I disagree, but I'm biased. Christina Desiderio was scheduled to perform on floor, but was pulled at the last minute. I guess Jay Clark was satisfied with their scores and didn't want to risk any injury (even though he shouldn't have been satisfied with a 48.975). Centenary got not one, not two, but THREE scores below a 9.000. Never seen anything like it before in my life... except for 20 minutes ago when they got two. One gymnast fell right on her head, but got back up and finished her routine, so I give her a round of applause. 

LSU beat Centenary by a score of 196.950-186.550 which is good by a national standard since we're still fifth in the nation, but we can still do much better and we will do much better. This was only our first meet of the season. Only their second time performing in the PMAC since last season, and their first was only for Gym 101, not even a real meet. In weeks to come we should be able to boost our score to at least 197.500 or even a 198.000 on a good night. Props to Centenary considering their average score was a 9.326 and they still aren't last in the nation... they're third to last and even first in division III. 


(Stats and photos are courtesy of LSU Gymnastics)

Dayne is a senior psychology major at Louisiana State University. He is originally from New Orleans and attended high school at Holy Cross. Other teams he likes are the Red Sox, Saints, Patriots, Bruins, Pelicans, and Celtics. He also has a career .500 batting average.

Popular posts from this blog

Who's Your Daddy Now?

By
Image
Last year during the Super Regionals, Tennessee's mantra was "who's your daddy?" implying that they owned/would own anyone who got in their way during the tournament. Alas, it turned out that Notre Dame was their daddy as they took down the 1 seed Volunteers. At the time, it was hard for us to talk trash since we lost in regionals to Southern Miss, Kennesaw State, and Army. Over the weekend, LSU adopted Tennessee from Notre Dame officially becoming Tennessee's daddy, taking 2 out of 3, winning the series.  Once again, I got there too late to get a spot in the student section, so I had to go back to standing room only. I didn't even leave late, I left an hour before game time, but I sat in bumper to bumper traffic for almost 30 minutes. But you didn't even need to see the field to know what was going on; you could hear it and feel it in the stadium. Paul Skenes proved once again why he is an ace in the SEC as if he even needed to do it again. He went 7 full...
Read more

Two 10s are Better Than One

By
Image
If I never see another Auburn gymnast in my life, including, but not limited to, Suni Lee, I will die a happy man. I know she's good, but her bars performance was not a 10; a 9.950 maybe, but was I impressed? Not really. And as far as the rest of them, a bunch of obnoxious asses I've ever had the misfortune of seeing in person. During every one of our beam routines, they had to chant so loudly. Absolutely no respect in our own house. We didn't do that during their beam routines although we should have. And one more thing before I get into the analysis of the meet- why were we cheering for not only Suni Lee, but every Auburn gymnast? I get that Suni competed for the United States in the summer Olympics, but who the hell are the rest of them and why were we cheering for them? They even cheered for Suni when she got a 10. SHE IS THE ENEMY. Let's cheer for Alabama during football season while we're at it. It doesn't matter anyway, we won and scored twice as many 10s...
Read more

I Called Strike 3 a Few Times as LSU Couldn’t Rally Early Enough for a Win Against Northwestern

By
Image
Since it was raining today and projected to rain all game, I decided to buy a ticket in the gold grandstands. After a few innings, I noticed that there were some empty seats in the premium section down below that is shown on TV, so I decide to move down for a couple innings. There I was able to call strike 3 on 3 different occasions thanks to Trent Vietmeier. And before you say anything, yes, I know you don't call strike 3 swinging, but unfortunately, Northwestern weren't taking any pitches in the strike zone, especially on strike 3.  The Tigers were able to rally a bit in the 7th inning down 6 on a error and a 2 run triple by Crews, but alas, the Demons score in the 9th and that was just too much to handle for the Tigers. So they won't finish the season 5-0 like I had hoped, but they still have a chance to get into the SEC Tournament. They are currently 3.0 games ahead of Auburn and Texas A&M who they will face this weekend, and if they can just win one of those games ...
Read more