The No. 17 Auburn Women's Gymnastics (6-6, 2-4 SEC) team won a four-way meet Saturday hosted by No. 33 Maryland, including No. 56 George Washington and No. 62 Yale with a team score of 196.225. The Terps secured second with a score of 195.825, the Colonials 192.100 earned them third and the Bulldogs were fourth with 188.700. "We're really proud of the girls," said head coach Jeff Thompson. "It was really tight and really loud. It was hard to hear. I'd try to coach the girls and they'd have to lean in to try to hear what I was saying."
Sophomore Allyson Sandusky and freshman Petrina Yokay scored a pair of 9.95s on bars to help earn the Tigers a score of 49.450 on the uneven bars, which is the second-highest team score on bars in Auburn history. "This past weekend was awesome for us it really boosts our confidence level, especially on our last event having our season high on bars," said sophomore Kylie Shields. "Having those sticks really showed us all our practice is really paying off. We are doing it in competition and that's what we need to be doing." Auburn posted a 48.825 on vault, 49.075 on floor and earned a 48.775 on beam. "Our goal was to go and hit everything that we did," Thompson said. "We got off to a really good start on balance beam and we hit all six routines, but the scores were much lower than we were expecting." Thompson said the women did not let the scores affect their confidence.
"We went to floor and did six great floor routines," Thompson said. "We went to vault did great on vault and when we got to uneven bars we stuck five out of six dismounts and we scored the second highest team bar score in school history. So, everything kind of evened out, scores were lower on beam but they were higher on bars. Hitting everything and finishing on a high note like that was awesome." The Tigers fell to Ohio State March 13 and Thompson said he felt the women put too much pressure to win on themselves. "We hated losing up there, but they also learned a very important lesson, that they have to focus on what they're doing," Thompson said. "They can't control the scores, they can't control what the other team is doing, so just go out there and do the best that you can do."
Beating three out-of- conference teams Saturday helped give the women back their confidence. "It was definitely good for our confidence," Shields said. "Going into SEC's this weekend we're a bit more prepared now." The now No. 15 Tigers travel to Jacksonville, Fla., Saturday for the SEC Championship and will compete against No. 1 Alabama, No. 4 Florida, No. 5 Georgia, No. 8 Arkansas, No. 10 LSU and No. 18 Kentucky. "SEC's is going to be a really exciting meet," said senior Krissy Voss. "For us to do our best we just have to stay focused the whole time and mostly focus on ourselves because we can't control what the other teams are doing." Thompson said they are excited for SEC's and they are not putting any pressure on themselves to win.
"We know that we can hang with anyone in the conference and we're excited to go over there," Thompson said. "We don't have anything to lose. People don't expect us to go in there and win a conference championship. Florida, Georgia and Alabama are expecting to win and they're probably telling their kids, 'We have to go in there and be perfect to win,' and we're not going to go over there and try to be perfect." Thompson said they are planning to go and perform their way, and do the best they can do personally and as a team.
"We have to control our routines, really focus on our handstands, sticking our landings and really come together as a team so we can do our personal best and really rise to the challenge at this meet," Voss said. SEC's is the longest meet of the season with seven teams, so the Tigers have to pace their energy throughout the day. "You have to know when to turn the music up and get fired up and when to turn the music down and get them to settle down," Voss said. "They've done a great job of that this year being able to stay focused on what they're doing and that's the key."
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