Myia Hambrick, a sophomore for the Tigers this year, started off the year with a bang at LSU’s season opener versus Oklahoma where she took the all-around title and helped LSU clinch the win. She earned SEC Co-Gymnast of the Week for her standout performance but is hungry for more. We caught up with Myia before LSU heads to the Vegas to face NC State in the college session of the Lady Luck Invitational— streaming LIVE tomorrow.





FloGymnastics: You guys are coming off a huge competition this past weekend. How do you feel like it went?
Myia Hambrick: I mean obviously it went really well for us, but mostly for that competition, since it was the first competition of the season, we were really just focusing on just being together and taking each routine one by one, each event one by one. And it all came together well in the end.

We were just focusing on getting out there and it was the first meet, so I think things worked out.


It was a really close meet—did you know how close it was during the meet?
Well, we knew it was going to be close just going into the meet anyways, and at first, I think we kind of saw the scoring because of where it’s positioned—you can see it better over in that area. And then once you move over around the arena it’s hard to tell.

But I think after the first two events—vault and bars—after that we were kind of just like ‘you know what, we’re doing well, we picked up steam,’ so at that point I think we all kind of forgot—I personally forgot about the scores. We were just doing one routine after another, so it was nice to not have to look at anything.


You personally had an incredible meet. You had 9.9s on beam and floor and won the all-around. Can you just talk a little bit about your performance and what that felt like for you?
Kind of like I said, we weren’t really focusing on scores—I wasn’t either—I was just going up there and doing what I’ve been training, just trusting what we’ve been doing in the gym because we’ve been doing pretty well.

It was just a great competition, the energy was awesome. The fans were great. Every time we did anything, they stood up and the entire arena was so loud. So it was awesome. I really didn’t even know I won until way later…I mean, it was great obviously to win the all-around—that’s pretty cool—but you know, Ashleigh Gnat was literally right behind me.

So, it’s really awesome that we had the top two scores of the meet for our team. That just shows that even in the first meet of the season, we’re ready to go.


Being a sophomore this year, what are the differences now being back as a second year instead of being a freshman?
Well, last year every single meet was a new experience—well, even now it is still. Last year I didn’t really know what to expect… I didn’t know what to expect at an away meet, at a home meet, or anything like that, because before I competed I had never even been to an LSU gymnastics meet. 

I knew they were crazy, but I never went, so for my first meet I was like, ‘oh my gosh.’ I feel like I’ve kind of matured a little just in how to handle that kind of situation, so that’s good.


You guys have a lot of freshmen this year with big talent. What has it been like acclimating them?
Yeah, they all came in here super excited to be in college and be doing college gymnastics. We have five freshmen and a transfer, and three of the five freshmen were training elite or went to elite competitions. So, this is totally new for them—it’s a totally different thing.

They were just super excited to come in here and do something different. Their enthusiasm has not slowed down one bit. They’re still so excited to be here. Everything we do they’re like ‘Yeah!’ We’re like, ‘Hey guys, we’re going to go do this today’ and they’re like, ‘OKAY!’ They’re ready to go all the time, so it’s very nice.

It’s really helpful when your freshman are just super excited because they ask so many questions to all of us. They’re like, ‘How do you do this’ or ‘What’s this like’…they’re just really invested and it’s great. So I think that’s helped our team chemistry because we haven’t had to get them excited—they’re already there. So that’s definitely very helpful. 

We worked a lot in preseason on being one team and being together and making sure everything understands that everyone has a job…So that really helped and I think it’s going to pay off.



You have a big competition this weekend coming up—you’re going off to Vegas for Lady Luck. Can you just talk about what your feeling are for the meet as a team?
I think mostly we’re just going to try to improve on the last meet—landings and handstands and things like that. I don’t think we’re trying to be too hyper-focused on anything specific—it’s just being cleaner. 

It’s our first road meet so that’s a different feel. And it’s on a Thursday which is also different. There’s just a lot of different things that are going on but it’s going to be good for us because you know, with gymnastics you need to be able to go whenever and wherever. That’s definitely a big part that we are focusing on—just mentally knowing that your skills are there no matter where you’re at or what day it is or anything like that.

So I think we’re using this mostly as a mental perpetration, but like gymnastics wise we’re really just working on cleaning up and being perfect.


Make sure to tune in LIVE to see LSU take on NC State at the Lady Luck Invitational on Thursday at 9 p.m. CST!


Related:
LSU Lady Tigers: Power Out, Power In
2016 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Complete Schedule
Rankings: NCAA National Rankings Week 2