The Auburn Gymnastics team (2-4, 2-3 SEC) missed the snow Friday for an away meet at Kentucky (14, 3-4 SEC) and came away with its second win of the season 196.400-195.425.
The Tigers had their best floor performance of the season to seal the win. This was a turnaround from just three weeks ago at LSU, when the floor was the women's worst event.
"LSU wasn't a very fun meet, but it happened for a reason and it really helped us because everyone's mentality was 'I got to hit my routine or else the team will be mad at me or the coach will be mad at me,'" said sophomore Kylie Shields. "You can't work like that, you have to work because you love doing it and that's what really changed, and we build confidence from loving what we're doing and you can see it in the numbers."
Associate head coach Rachelle Thompson said the floor routine is always the last event to come together for gymnasts because of training and measures the women take for safety.
"A lot of times we don't train on the competition floor, we do a lot of stuff with soft landings and push back actually putting them on the hard floor because of injuries," Thompson said. "Physically our gymnastics on the floor event has improved, but it's more of the girls gaining more confidence and making the floor routines in the meets and getting more secure in their landings."
The Tigers started out the meet on the uneven bars. Sophomore Allyson Sandusky led the team in the event, scoring a 9.9. Senior Carmen Nelms hit a 9.8 for the second consecutive meet and freshman Petrina Yokay nailed a strong 9.85.
Sandusky, who was recently named the SEC Gymnast of the Week, said winning away was encouraging.
"Since we were going up against another SEC school, it's always good to have our team go out there and try to do our best and hit our routines every single time we go out," Sandusky said. "Getting a win at Kentucky was awesome, especially since it was a travel meet for us."
Kentucky started the night on vault and Auburn led after the first rotation, 49.100-49.075.
The second rotation saw strong performances from Auburn on vault, but Kentucky's Storey Morris hit a 9.875 on bars. Auburn's lead was cut to 98.15097.975 going into the third rotation.
Thompson said the team didn't take the meet lightly and knew the Wildcats were a strong vault and floor team.
"You can never, ever take an SEC school for granted and Kentucky has had huge improvements this year in gymnastics," Thompson said.
During the third rotation, the Wildcats struggled on beam, scoring a 48.300 as they were forced to count a 9.55 and 9.525.
Auburn scored its highest floor exercise of the season with a 49.100 and extended its lead to almost a point going into the final round.
The Tigers finished on beam, with junior Rachel Inniss earning a 9.925 and her second beam title of the season. It was the highest individual score Auburn has seen all year.
Auburn has a bye week this week and will return to competition Friday, Feb. 26.
The Tigers will host Florida, currently ranked No. 4. Sandusky said she is looking forward to some time off. "It's very important that we rest our bodies, but still train as hard as we normally do, because we don't want to get out of the groove that we normally have by having a meet every weekend," Sandusky said. "It's a good time for us to physically and mentally rest our bodies."
Thompson said the women need a break at this point, and she believes the team is on the right track competitively.
"What I do is take all of our scores from our meets and pull out the girls' top scores and, when you add them all up, the total is competitive with the top teams in the country," Thompson said. "There's no reason why we can't go out in the second part of the season and score within five to six tenths of that and make it to the national championships."
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