Midway through the opening balance beam routine for Ohio State’s Emma Pritchard on Friday night, the first few bars of the music for LSU’s Sierra Ballard’s floor routine started blaring out over the public address speakers by mistake.
It was that kind of night in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, a night of great performances and early faux pas that frequently mark season-opening meets.
For the No. 3-ranked LSU gymnastics team, meet number one of 2024 was a mixed bag. The Tigers had some strong performances and ran into some serious difficulties on balance beam with a pair of falls before pulling out a 196.975-196.775 win over the No. 14 Buckeyes.
The Tigers had to count a fall on beam, resulting in a low score by LSU’s standards of 48.700. Ohio State was unspectacular but steady, counting only one score over 9.90 all night but was able to keep pressure on the Tigers until LSU pounded out some clutch performances on floor at the end.
“Being right at 197 to open the season and counting a fall, it’s hard to complain a whole lot,” LSU coach Jay Clark said. “We will go back into the gym and correct some things and get better. We looked tight in spots. And we were going against a team with nothing to lose.
“All in all, I was happy with the start minus a few glaring things I saw.”
One of the things that made Clark happy was Ballard’s 9.90 in the lead off spot, the first of four 9.90s or better on floor for the Tigers, who entered the final rotation trailing Ohio State 147.725-147.450. The last was a 9.925 by freshman Amari Drayton, unfazed by the pressure of being inserted into the anchor spot as a last-minute replacement for Kiya Johnson.
“It didn’t feel real,” a native of Spring, Texas. “I was just really happy I got to compete out there.”
The meet marked the return to competition at home for Johnson, a fifth-year senior who missed almost all of 2023 with an Achilles tendon injury. Johnson performed on LSU’s first three events — vault, uneven bars and beam — her best score a 9.925 on bars that won the event. But both her legs cramped up at the start of her beam routine, a 9.85, forcing Clark to make the switch to Drayton.
“We got to see a freshman do something spectacular,” Clark said of Drayton. “Amari came through for us. It was also a brand new vault she’d never done (scoring another 9.925) and she didn’t know she was going in until after beam and got a 9.925 (on floor).”
LSU senior Haleigh Bryant said she told Drayton to "just be normal" before she went out on floor, because she was confident Drayton's normal would be plenty good enough.
"I'm a proud mom," Bryant said smiling. "Get ready to watch more Amari Drayton."
Bryant, the rock of the Tigers’ rotation in 2023 after Johnson went down in January, turned in another impressive performance. She won the all-around title with a 39.675 as well as vault (9.95).
Aleah Finnegan won beam with a 9.95, while Ohio State’s Ella Hodges won floor with a 9.95.
Bryant now has 62 career individual victories including 20 all-around wins, moving her into a tie for eighth place in LSU history with current assistant coach Ashleigh Gnat and Jennifer Wood.
“She’d be the first to say we’re not worried about how many events someone wins,” Clark said of Bryant. “Save that for mom and grandmother and when you come back here as an alum and tell fish stories.”
Bryant sought out the non-individual positives from the night.
“This was a good baseline,” she said. “We don’t try to be perfect, just get 1% better each day. Everything we do in the gym is enough. People just got a little nervous today.”
Unfortunately for the Tigers, the week was marred by a major injury.
Alyona Shchennikova, one of several gymnasts who returned in 2024 for a fifth or sixth year, watched the meet on a kneeling scooter, a large bandage wrapped around her lower left leg. Clark said it was a lower leg injury but did not go into further detail. Shchennikova was a frequent all-arounder for LSU in 2023.
LSU hits the road next week for a big four-team meet in the Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate Quad meet in West Valley City, Utah. Also competing will be No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 4 Utah and No. 5 UCLA. The meet is set for Jan. 13 at 3 p.m. on ABC. The Tigers return home Jan. 19 against Kentucky.
Meet scores
1. #3 LSU 196.975 (Vault — 49.375, Bars — 49.375, Beam — 48.700, Floor — 49.525)
2. #14 Ohio State 196.775 (Vault — 49.300, Bars — 49.125, Beam — 49.050, Floor — 49.300)
Individual (includes first place and all LSU competitors)
All-around – 1. Haleigh Bryant, LSU, 39.675; 2. Payton Harris, Ohio State, 39.450; 3. Tory Vetter, Ohio State, 39.375.
Vault – 1. Haleigh Bryant, LSU, 9.95; 2. Amari Drayton, LSU, 9.925; T3. Aleah Finnegan, LSU, 9.875; T8. KJ Johnson, LSU, 9.825; 10. Kiya Johnson, LSU, 9.80; 12. Savannah Schoenherr, LSU, 9.625.
Bars – 1. Kiya Johnson, LSU, 9.925; 2. Alexis Jeffrey, LSU, 9.90; T3. Haleigh Bryant, LSU, 9.875; T5. Savannah Schoenherr, LSU, 9.85; 8. Konnor McClain, LSU, 9.825; 9. Ashley Cowan, LSU, 9.80.
Beam – 1. Aleah Finnegan, LSU, 9.95; 2. Haleigh Bryant, LSU, 9.925; T3. Kiya Johnson, LSU, 9.85; 8. Alexis Jeffrey, LSU, 9.775; 10. Sierra Ballard, LSU, 9.20; 11. Konnor McClain, LSU, 8.95.
Floor – 1. Ella Hodges, Ohio State, 9.95; T2. Haleigh Bryant, Amari Drayton, LSU, 9.925; T4. Sierra Ballard, Aleah Finnegan, LSU, 9.90; T6. Olivia Dunne, LSU, 9.875; T8. KJ Johnson, LSU, 9.85.
Attendance: 12,023