LSU head coach Jay Clark makes his feelings known on Olivia Dunne's performance during team's season opener

LSU head coach Jay Clark shared his thoughts on Olivia Dunne's performance on Friday during the Tigers' season opener against Iowa State. Dunne was slotted in during the beam balance and floor exercises of the meet and contributed substantially to the scoring board (9.825 in beam balance and 9.875 in the floors).

The LSU Tigers (197.300) eventually clinched the victory in their season opener against IOWA (194.100) by a margin of 3.200 points. Just a few days after the meet, head coach Clark reflected on the performance of his senior team member, Dunne.

In a press conference, Clark heaped praises on Dunne for her performances during the meet. He also spoke about his decision to make Dunne an alternate for the bars apparatus. He said:

"Now Liv did a great job, Liv does a great job anytime we've needed her I think she's proven she's able to go at a moment's now she did it even on bars too. People didn't even know that I made a change after the 15-minute touch and made her the alternate on bars and she went cold and did a bar set in our two-minute warmup." (15:38 onwards)

Clark added:

"She's versatile and she's very confident in what she's doing in her gymnastics right now and the level she is at is comfortable for her."

Jay Clark also spoke about the impact Olivia Dunne has had on the LSU Tigers gymnastics program and said it remains very underrated in this aspect.

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Olivia Dunne shares her thoughts as she steps into the new year

Dunne during her warmup routines before the LSU Tigers vs IOWA State Cyclones matchup at the Pete Maravich Center (Image via: Getty Images)

Olivia Dunne recently shared her thoughts as she steps into 2025 for her final collegiate season at LSU. This came just a couple of days before her team's clash against Iowa State.

Dunne shared several glimpses of her LSU gymnastics sessions on Instagram where she can be seen executing her skills. In the caption, Dunne remarked that she is aiming to chase the same goals in the new season too. She captioned the post:

"New year 🔜 same goal"

Olivia Dunne has several notable achievements in her collegiate career. She earned All-American honors in the 2021 season in the uneven bars apparatus and was also named the 2024 Academic All-American.