BATON ROUGE, La. – No. 14 Penn State women’s gymnastics (4-1, 3-0 Big Ten) secured the team’s fifth-straight score of 196.000 or above as the team fell to the No. 3 LSU Tigers (5-1-1), 197.525-196.125. This marks the first time the Nittany Lions have lost a meet in the 2026 campaign.
BARS (48.975)
Freshman Ava Cash led the Penn State vault rotation for the Nittany Lions with a 9.875, tying her career-high. Elizabeth Leary, the Raleigh native, preceded Cash’s routine with a strong effort of her own with a 9.850 while sophomore Dani Latronica closing out the Blue & White on vault with a 9.800. Senior Ava Piedrahita notched a 9.750 with Ellie Monahan and Jessica Johanson rounding out Penn State’s first rotation with a pair of 9.700s.
VAULT (48.775)
Cash once again led the Nittany Lions alongside Johanson, both tallying a 9.800. Piedrahita closed out the rotation with a 9.775 while Leary opened the rotation with a 9.725. Sophomore Allison Kaempfer totaled a 9.675 with Latronica rounding out the Penn State effort with a 9.625.
FLOOR (49.175)
Penn State put together one of the team’s best floor routines of the season while in Baton Rouge. Junior Alyssa Kramer paced the Nittany Lions on the floor with her 9.875 routine, tying her second-highest score on the rotation this season. Leary wasn’t far behind, tying her career-high with a 9.850 on the night. Monahan posted her best score of the night with 9.825 while sophomore Bella Misiura secured a 9.825 of her own. Johanson and McElligott finished the spectacular rotation with the two of them scoring a 9.800. All six gymnasts scored a 9.800 or above en route to the team’s second-best floor total of the season, behind only the floor exercise against Maryland.
BEAM (49.200)
The Nittany Lions best routine came on the four-inch-wide apparatus. The 49.200 score tallied by Penn State was the best performance by the Nittany Lions so far this year. Latronica, the anchor for the Blue and White, recorded a 9.900, the highest by any Nittany Lion so far this season and the highest of her career. McElligott and fellow junior Ashley Maul both notched a 9.850, with the score being just shy of Maul’s career-high of 9.875. Senior Amani Herring made her second appearance of the 2026 campaign and scored a season-high 9.800 on the beam while Kramer matched that score. Monahan’s 9.750 was the uncounted score in the Penn State’s best event of the night.
UP NEXT
The Nittany Lions head back to Rec Hall to take on the No. 11 Michigan State Spartans on Sunday, February 8th at 2 p.m. Admission, as always, is free.
Follow along with the team on our social media pages on Facebook (PennStateWomensGymnastics) and X/Instagram (@pennstatewgym).