Big Night for Blanco as No. 6 Alabama Gymnastics Tops No. 2 LSU
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Behind a career night from Luisa Blanco, and season-best performances on vault and floor, Alabama gymnastics earned its highest overall score of the season and upset No. 2 LSU in Coleman Coliseum on Friday night.
The final score was 197.725 to 197.325, which in gymnastics is a pretty solid win.
"I attribute it to the fact that we've been building toward this week after week and I know our ladies know what they're capable of," Alabama coach Dana Duckworth said. "Like we talked about, our goal to be able to be at our best is to hit 24 for 24 and we got closer to that this week than we did before."
Alabama blew past its previous highest score of the season, a 197 last week against Georgia. It was the Crimson Tide's highest team score since 2017.
"We are a 197-plus team," Blanco said. "We've always been that in the gym you can see from tonight's performance that we finally got the opportunity to show off what we've been working towards, and I think it's just gonna get better from here."
Blanco had a career high on all four events and won the all-around competition for the second straight week. Her 39.825 was the third highest all around score in program history.
She had a 9.975 on balance beam and floor exercise, 9.95 on uneven parallel bars and a 9.925 on vault.
Friday night was the annual Power of Pink Meet, which always holds a little extra energy and magic in Coleman Coliseum, even with the reduced capacity this year. That energy was evident as Alabama closed the night on the floor exercise.
"Every Pink Meet is just so special for every single one of us," Lexi Graber said. "Like Dana said, we go out there and before that even begins this whole day is just doing it for something bigger than ourselves and it's so much more when you're out there."
The highlight of the night was that floor rotation, when Alabama scored a season high 49.550 including 9.975s by both Blanco and Graber. No Crimson Tide gymnast scored below a 9.85 as it closed out the victory.
Alabama came out firing on the vault during the first rotation, and continued to build on that momentum. Highlighted by a 9.95 from Kaylee Quinn, the Crimson Tide scored a season best 49.450 team score on vault.
Those two stellar rotations paired with solid performances on beam and bars helped Alabama defeat the Tigers.
LSU came into the meet with a higher team average than Alabama had scored in any meet this year, but the Tigers looked slightly gassed on some rotations after coming off a meet against Florida where both teams scored above 198.
Duckworth said she has seen her team continuing to make strides as the season progressed.
"We talk about mental toughness and the ability to have positive attitude and gratitude regardless of circumstance," Duckworth said. "These women are living this, and the other piece is just family and love and you saw that tonight."
The Crimson Tide remained undefeated at home and moved to 5-1 overall in the SEC. Alabama will visit No. 5 Arkansas next Friday night.
