No. 9 Kentucky gymnastics’ (5-4, 2-3 SEC) “Pajama Party” meet versus No. 3 LSU (8-2, 5-1 SEC) saw the Wildcats fall to the Tigers in a close meet 197.200-197.075 at Historic Memorial Coliseum.
The loss marks the first time in three straight home duals that Kentucky has fallen to the Tigers, having not lost at home since 2017.
In front of a sold out arena, Kentucky’s Cecily Rizo kicked off the meet at vault, kicking off Kentucky with a score of 9.725 for her Yurchenko Full.
With a consistently strong season behind her, fifth-year senior Isabella Magnelli finished the meet being a title winner in the vault event with her stuck front handspring pike half scoring a 9.925.
On the uneven bars, the standout for the Wildcats was Delaynee Rodriguez, whose stuck landing earned a 9.875 and provided her second career event title. The apparatus, however, was the team’s lowest scoring event of the night.
“There’s things we can do to improve on a daily basis, where we come in here, we can expect to have a little better execution,” Head Coach Tim Garrison said. “I expect that we could be easily two-tenths higher on bars than we were tonight, just in my mind, in execution.”
Even with the individual successes, the midway point showed LSU leading Kentucky 98.525-98.325.
With the Cats kicking off the second half of the meet on balance beams and LSU on floor, the Cats gained momentum with standout performances from Creslyn Brose, Skylar Killough-Wilhelm and Magnelli.
Brose’s set on the beams resulted in the sophomore tying her career-high on the apparatus with a 9.925. Following Brose, All-American Killough-Wilhelm gave the Cats another impressive score of 9.900.
“Beam Queen” Magnelli, similar to her vault performance, showed up for the Cats by earning a 9.950 and another event title on the night.
An evident improvement from Kentucky’s previous matchup, where the beams were its lowest scoring event against Temple, Kentucky earned its second-best event score on the evening with a 49.325 in the event.
Along with being their second-best event score, the Cats’ even led the Tigers in the third rotation until LSU’s Amari Drayton earned a 9.875 on the floor, ultimately aiding LSU in sharing a 49.325 with Kentucky to conclude the rotation.
Concluding the night for Kentucky was its highest team-scoring event, floor exercise, scoring 49.425 and boasting an event title for All-American Brose. Brose took her first event title this season in the apparatus and scored a season-best 9.950. Hailey Davis wrapped up the night with an impressive 9.925, extending her streak of scores above 9.900 on the event to 18 of the last 19 meets.
“I thought floor put on a great show,” Garrison said. “[We] got to Skylar and Creslyn putting on a show, and then closing the show with Hailey, very happy with where we are, especially with those back three on floor – but man, I can’t take away from what Delaney did, and what Bella did either.”
Despite the close loss, the Wildcats still were happy following the meet, crediting the arena’s atmosphere and the team’s near success against the defending national champions.
“[The fans] definitely bring the energy, obviously, and it just feeds into us, and it allows us to just go out there and compete better,” said Magnelli. “[…] I mean, going after the top three team and almost beating them is pretty impressive, and I think a lot of these girls have been getting more confident.”
Kentucky will hit the road to face off versus No. 12 Georgia at Stegeman Coliseum in Athens on Sunday, March 2, at 6 p.m. ET.
