Editor’s Note: The following is an official press release courtesy of LSU’s athletics department.
BATON ROUGE – The LSU Gymnastics program welcomes level 10 gymnasts Brooke Simpson and Leah Miller to join the Tigers for the upcoming 2024 season.
Assistant coach and recruiting coordinator, Garrett Griffeth, said “our staff is very excited that Leah and Brooke will be joining an already stellar freshman class. They perfectly round out what should be one of the top incoming classes in the nation.”
An all-around gymnast from Knoxville, Tennessee, Simpson is a three-star recruit by College Gym News. She trained at Premier Athletics Knoxville under Lea Wampler and Sasha Gridnev and has the ability to be a consistent competitor on vault, beam and floor for the Tigers.
“Brooke is a natural born competitor,” said Griffeth. “She brings a level of intensity to the competition floor that I’m excited for Tiger nation to experience. She has a lot of personality and it will stand out when she performs.”
Simpson recorded multiple top finishes on beam and floor this year. She recorded scores of 9.550 on beam and 9.700 on floor to finish first on both events at the 2023 Nashville Nights competition. She was named the 2023 floor champion at the region eight championships, where she also finished third on beam.
She was also the beam champion in her state and regional meets in 2021 after finishing as the top performer on the event.
The Tennessee native is a two-time national championship qualifier and has competed in the USA Invitational four times in her club career. In 2023, she placed fourth on vault, third on floor and second on beam at the invitational and finished as one of the top-10 all-around performers at the same meet in 2021.
“I chose LSU because the people and the atmosphere felt like home to me. I knew this is where God was calling me to be,” said Simpson.
The daughter of Chad and Kelly Simpson, she plans to major in mass communication in the fall. She has twin brothers, Lance and Cooper. Her brother Lance is on the golf team at Tennessee.
Miller trains at Arizona Dynamics Gymnastics under Gina Martin, where she primarily trains the beam and floor events.
“Leah comes from a family that’s very familiar with college athletics and the demands of being a student athlete. It was evident early in the recruiting process that Leah had a love for LSU and always dreamt of representing the Purple and Gold,” said Griffeth. “She has a strong foundation in her gymnastics and I’m excited to see what she does as she grows at LSU.”
A native of Raleigh, North Carolina, Miller owns a first place finish on floor in her last competition at the Arizona Sunrays Classic Rock Invitational on January 6. In that same meet, she finished third on vault and ninth on beam.
Miller was also the runner-up floor champion at the 2022 Arizona State Championships.
“LSU has been my dream school since I was little,” said Miller. “I knew from the moment I stepped on campus that it was home.”
She plans on majoring in mass communications in the fall. Her parents are Archie and Morgan Miller. Her father, Archie, is the head coach of the men’s basketball team at Rhode Island.