The Auburn Gymnastics team made its mark last Friday night as it beat the Georgia Gym Dogs 195.225-194.00 for the first time in the history of the program.
"I'm really speechless," said senior Krissy Voss. "A historic win of this magnitude made the results just a bit more meaningful on this night; our night."
Auburn (1-3, 1-2 SEC) faced the Gym Dogs (1-3, 0-2 SEC) on 64 separate occasions, losing each time. Before the Tigers' final event, the floor rotation, it looked as if it might become 65.
Thankfully, all but one of the Auburn's six participants scored over 9.725, allowing the Tigers to surge ahead by 1.225.
"We came over here and I told you floor was going to be our best event, and floor was our best event," said Auburn head coach Jeff Thompson. "It sealed the win, and I think we had it locked up before Rachel (Inniss) even went. She had a great floor routine, and it's just a really, really special feeling."
The Georgia Gym Dogs are 5-time national champions and are, along with Utah and UCLA, widely regarded as one of the best in the sport.
"We just took it one step at a time," said sophomore Allyson Sandusky. "Each event was like a different meet for us, so we just went out there and did our best."
The win marks Auburn's first victory of the season after an unsuccessful stretch against Alabama, Oklahoma and LSU.
"I'm really speechless," Voss said. "I'm so proud to be a part of this team because we just rise to the challenge. My teammates totally had my back. I love it."
Auburn was aided in the final round by Gym Dog mistakes, including Kat Ding and Grace Taylor both falling from the beam.
The two received a 9.375 and an 8.700, respectively, the latter being the only score of the meet to dip below 9.0. "We were turning the pages, but it was just a rough day," said Georgia's Courtney McCool. "There were some highlights but we can't really focus on the highlights anymore. This has happened too many times this year and we're sick of this feeling." As Kool and the Gang's "Celebration" blasted over the Coliseum speakers, Thompson speculated that the motivation to overcome a Goliath like Georgia came from the season's previous losses. "We've been preaching `process, process,' and the logic of what you do," Thompson said. "We've been talking about the percentages of hit routines during the week, and that's what we did tonight. What a great, great win. This is a milestone for us." Auburn will next face
Arkansas (2-2, 1-2 SEC) in Fayetteville at 7 p.m. this Saturday, Feb. 6. The Razorbacks, coming off a win against Kentucky last Friday, feel confident entering the meet.
"The last two weeks, we struggled on the road in tough environments," said Arkansas' Jaime Pisani. "We want to keep improving every day in practice."
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