NO. 7 LSU GYMNASTICS SET FOR NCAA CENTRAL REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

BATON ROUGE – LSU’s seventh-ranked gymnastics team wrapped up preparations for Friday’s NCAA Central Regional Championships with a final workout at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center Thursday afternoon.

The meet’s top-two teams plus the top-two all-arounders not on a qualifying team will automatically advance to the NCAA Championships to be held, April 20-22, in Corvallis, Ore.

“I am pleased with the way this team has progressed to this point,” said LSU head coach D-D Breaux. “I think we have gotten better with each competition and I expect that to continue with this meet. We have had two good weeks of training since the SEC meet and now it’s time to go in and get the job done.”

The Tigers will be seeking their eighth trip to the NCAA meet in the last nine years, as well as a third consecutive regional title. LSU, the winner of a total of nine regional crowns in the program’s history, has won three in the last four years.

The Tigers will have to knock off some of the top competition in the nation to secure their national bid as they will be joined by top-seeded and sixth-ranked Oklahoma, 16^th-ranked Penn State, No. 20 Kentucky as well as Michigan State and Ohio State in the team competition.

“We’ve seen most of these teams in the regular season so we have a pretty good idea of what to expect,” said LSU head coach D-D Breaux. “I think we match up well with these teams and once again it is going to come down to sticking landings and hitting handstands.”

The Tigers will look to a trio of all-arounders, in senior April Burkholder and juniors Kelly Phelan and Nicki Butler, to pace the squad.

Burkholder, a nine-time All-American and four-time All-SEC selection, enters the competition ranked seventh in the country in the all-around. She has won the regional all-around title each of the last two seasons and has won three straight regional crowns on the floor.

Phelan comes into the meet ranked 18^th nationally in the all-around and is listed at No. 3 on the floor exercise.

Butler is scheduled to make her fifth all-around appearance of the season and her first since the Florida meet on March 10, as she has competed primarily on the vault, bars and beam for the Tigers this season.

The trio will lead LSU as it is set to begin competition on the vault. The Tigers will sit out the meet’s second rotation with a bye before competing on the bars and beam. They will then have one final bye before wrapping up competition on the floor exercise.

Action from the Maravich Center is scheduled to get underway at 6 p.m. (CT).