Creslyn Brose (Vicky Graff Photo)
All-American Creslyn Brose is “hoping” she will be competing for Kentucky Friday night when it visits No. 4 LSU, the 2024 national champion.
Brose missed UK’s first two meets — one reason coach Tim Garrison’s team is 0-5 — after suffering a concussion in a preseason practice.
“I’m hoping by Friday I can be back in beam and floor,” Brose said on WLAP Sunday Morning Sports Talk. “Those are the events that I’ve been doing for the past two years. I would love to maybe try and get in bars at some point this season, if not next (year)”
Kentucky started the season ranked ninth but has dropped out of the top 20 going into the meet at LSU. The next meet will be on Jan. 30 when UK hosts No. 2 Oklahoma, the 2025 national champion.
“I just hope that we can really show that we know how to execute, and we know that we can get out there and really perform and be able to do what we do in practice,” sophomore Anna Flynn Cashion, who has won the vault in both UK meets this season. “At the end of the day, you’re doing a routine that you’ve done in practice so many times before.
‘I just hope to see that our team can really go out there and show the people who we are, and that Kentucky gymnastics is capable of so much more.”
Cashion will be making her first trip to LSU but knows it is a “great environment” like most SEC venues are (Florida is currently the nation’s No. 1 team).
Garrison knows there will be 13,000 fans cheering for LSU Friday hoping to rattle his team.
“They’re loaded up on jambalaya and ready to ready to cheer for their group, you know. It’s gonna be a great atmosphere but we just need to get ourselves on track completely. That’s really our focus. Go down there and put four events together.”
Both the Kentucky men’s and women’s basketball teams won at LSU on buzzer beating shots by Malachi Moreno and Tonie Morgan.
“What’s the equivalent of a gymnastics buzzer-beater for the win?
“It would have to be (junior) Delaynee (Rodriguez) on beam because Delaynee will finish us up on beam out there. So if we’re and we need a 9.9 plus from Delaynee on beam, I would say that would be our buzzer beater,” Garrison said.
Rodriguez has won the all-around title at both UK matches this season and was also first on beam and floor in last week’s loss to Arizona State when four UK gymnasts fell on beam — the first time Rodriguez and Brose have seen anyone fall on beam in their time at UK.
“Us juniors have been trying to tell these younger girls just be confident in yourself. We had an amazing preseason. I think Cres and I have great confidence and we can give that advice to those girls, Rodriguez said.
Brose could only watch her teammates falter on beam against Arizona State.
“As all the falls are happening, I kind of pulled my team together and told them we need to do our job. That means we do not change the energy no matter the result. Right now, obviously, the falls are not what we want and that’s not what we’re going to let Kentucky be. But we can’t change the past,” Brose said. “We got to continue the meets and make sure that we are just giving it our all.”
Garrison certainly felt that UK fans were giving their all at the Excite Night meet with Arizona State.
“I did look around, and at some point during the meet I looked up and I was like, ‘Yep, they’re here. They’re always here.’ And they were loud. It’s an incredible event,” Garrison said. “It is every year. People look forward to it. Now we need to get them back for the next meet or Oklahoma and make every meet an exciting night.”
