Auburn gymnastics completed its fall season Sunday afternoon in Auburn Arena by hosting the annual Preview Meet where the Tigers practiced their routines for the 2017 season in front of 1,100 fans.
Head coach Jeff Graba was pleased with the outcome of the meet, as Auburn now looks toward their season opener against Oregon State, Jan. 6, in Auburn Arena.
“The main goal is to get out of this day safely, so I’m usually just relieved when it’s done,” Graba said. “Our goal is to get the upperclassmen acclimated again to the facility and equipment and to also get the freshmen out there in front of people. It’s a little different dynamic out here. Sightlines are different now that we have the ribbon board, so there are all kinds of things for them to get used to and I thought they did a good job.”
Senior Kullen Hlawek also spoke of how important the meet is as the team prepares to begin the season.
“We really do this to get used to the equipment, get used to our schedule,” Hlawek said. “There’s just a lot that goes on that people don’t see, so it’s to get the returners back into it, but also to teach the freshmen how everything operates. It’s a new team and a new year. We don’t base anything off of last year. We do this to get our eating figured out, when we’re hydrating, how the equipment feels, everything figured out now, or have an idea so we know how to change it later.”
Coming off of a successful season last year, Auburn knows that they have more room for improvement.
“For us, our goal is always to make it to the NCAA Championships, but you can’t win the national championship if you don’t get there,” Graba said. “You can’t win it all if you don’t get to Super Six, so we start with the end in mind and we try to train that way from September 15th on. I think the team is doing a good job and we try to keep the big goal in mind.”
“Our team goal is just to be in the top four,” Hlawek added. “Our team does best when we just go out there and have fun, and do what we know how to do. Then we’re a pretty unstoppable team.”
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