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Olivia Dunne, No. 5 LSU Gymnastics Team Set School Record

The Tigers were victorious against Arkansas on Friday night, with a score of 198.475.

Ananya Panchal

Olivia Dunne

Olivia Dunne.

The No. 5 LSU gymnastics team set a school record with its win against No. 7 Arkansas. Olivia Dunne and her teammates scored an overall 198.475 (compared to the Razorbacks’ 196.200) at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Friday night.

The team’s score marks the highest in program history for the Tigers and highest of any team in the 2024 NCAA gymnastics season.

“Well, we got better. That’s what this week was about. The focus and the main goal was to get a good performance, a complete performance,” LSU gymnastics coach Jay Clark said. “I know everyone wants to talk about the score tonight, and that’s great. I do not focus on whether we get a low or high score. It’s about our performance. We did our job tonight and we can do that same performance somewhere else. For us it’s about keeping our eye on the next step ahead of us and just taking it one step at a time.”

The victory also marked Clark’s 100th career win as a head coach.

Dunne, a 2023 SI Swimsuit model who will return to this year’s magazine, matched her personal season-high score on the floor, after receiving a 9.90 in her first round and a 9.85 in her second, averaging 9.875. She also perfectly stuck her landing and nailed her bars routine, an event in which she earned the prestigious All-America title as a freshman in 2021—she ended with a score of 9.550.

The 21-year-old’s boyfriend, Pittsburgh Pirates prospect Paul Skenes, also 21, attended the meet to cheer on his girlfriend.

Next up, LSU will compete at Georgia on Friday at 6 p.m. ET. The Tigers-Bulldogs meet will be televised on SEC Network.

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Ananya Panchal
ANANYA PANCHAL

Ananya Panchal is a writer on the Lifestyle and Trending News team for SI Swimsuit, where she covers fashion, beauty, pop culture and the internet’s favorite personalities and trends. She joined the brand in 2022 after roles at Bustle, the San Francisco Chronicle and the TODAY Show. Panchal loves to write about fashion in all its forms—from standout runway moments and evolving street style to the best accessories to elevate each season’s wardrobe (she rarely goes anywhere without a stack of jewelry and a coffee in hand). A self-proclaimed beauty fanatic, she’s always on the hunt for must-have products and loves breaking down viral trends. Her favorite series at the moment is spotlighting female founders and the stories behind the brands they’ve built—especially those shaping the future of fashion, wellness and tech. She is based between New York City and San Francisco and, when she’s not writing, can be found rewatching One Tree Hill, playing sudoku, trying new restaurants or ranking her favorite Disney Channel Original Movies. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and journalism with a minor in criminal justice from Boston University.

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