Alabama gymnastics set season highs on the uneven bars and balance beam Friday night in a 197.450-196.850 loss to No. 5 LSU, continuing a steady improvement from its season opener to its first home conference meet and fourth overall meet of the year.

The ninth-ranked Crimson Tide’s most striking performance came in the balance beam, which had been its lowest-scoring event through three meets with an average of 48.525.

Three consecutive gymnasts – junior Wynter Childers, freshman Shallon Olsen and freshman Emily Gaskins – set or tied career highs on the beam, leading the team to a score of 49.25 just three weeks after several mistakes netted a 47.7.

“If you asked us, it’s not a surprise because we definitely do have a very strong beam team,” junior Maddie Desch said. “We showed what we were definitely capable of.”

Childers’ score of 9.925 tied two LSU gymnasts for the meet’s highest beam score. The junior ended up competing in the all-around for the first time in over a year due to sophomore Lexi Graber sustaining a toe injury.

Head coach Dana Duckworth said after the meet that Graber’s injury, which occurred during warmups, was to her big toe.

“I was excited, but I also knew that we did have a job to do,” Childers said. “Lexi is a huge contributor on our team but that’s why we are 10, 11, 12 deep. We’re prepared for it.”

In addition to her career-best score on beam, Childers was 0.025 shy of tying her career high on bars and had a chance to tie her career-high all-around of 39.425, eventually finishing with 39.35.

Duckworth said adding Childers to the vault, bars and floor lineups was not a matter of who could best handle the rigors of doing the all-around, but of who would be the best option for each vacancy.

“I was thinking, Who’s going to step in on vault? Wynter,” Duckworth said. “Who’s going to step in on bars? Wynter. She’s already in the beam lineup, and then who was going to step up in floor? Wynter was ready.”

Junior Shea Mahoney returned to the floor lineup after sitting it out at Georgia last week due to an ankle injury. For the fourth straight meet she also competed on vault and bars, setting a new career high of 9.95 on bars that is also the team’s highest individual score so far this season.

“We had an agreement that when (Mahoney) was warming up, if the ankle was firing and she could take the landing I really wanted her to compete,” Duckworth said. “But if she wasn’t, she had to communicate.”

Gaskins also set a new career best on vault with a 9.825. Senior Abby Armbrecht and Olsen had 9.925 and 9.9 in the floor exercise and vault, respectively. Olsen had the team’s highest score on vault for the fourth time in four career meets.

Up next, Alabama has two consecutive road meets – at Missouri on Feb. 1 and at Arkansas on Feb. 8 – before returning to Coleman Coliseum to host No. 3 Florida on Feb. 15.