LSU Gymnastics Prepares For SEC Championship Meet This Saturday

Last year, the Tigers took the short drive south to New Orleans to compete in the night session and comfortably took first place in the SEC Championship. Their 198.075 bested the Florida Gators (197.300), Kentucky Wildcats (197.600) and Alabama Crimson Tide (197.750).

This year, the SEC Championship is a different beast. The Oklahoma Sooners, who are the golden standard in college gymnastics, have joined the conference and are the No. 1 team in the country based on NQS average, but since LSU beat them earlier in the season, the Sooners are the two-seed. Florida also enters as the No. 3 team in the country and Missouri ranks No. 7. Four of the top-seven teams in the country all in the same conference competing for one title.

With the one-seed comes the option to choose which event you will begin on. Instead of going the traditional route and choosing vault, which is the event you start on at home, they chose the uneven bars, which is where you start for road meets. By doing so, LSU will get to close out the meet on floor and vault, their two best rotations. They're the No. 1 vault team and No. 2 floor team in the country while ranking No. 3 on bars and No. 5 on beam.

This SEC Championship is expected to be as competitive as any of its predecessors. LSU Head Coach, Jay Clark, said himself that he can't remember a time the top-four teams have been so good.

The Sooners are the favorites going into Saturday, but the Tigers are right on their tail. The two teams are separated by .035 in the NQS, and if February's contest was any indication of how Saturday will go, my money's on the Tigers to repeat.

The meet kicks off at 7pm CT on Saturday night and can be streamed on SEC Network.