The No. 22 Auburn gymnastics team (9-14, 2-4 SEC) placed fourth at the 2011 Tuscaloosa NCAA Regional Saturday evening in Coleman Coliseum.
An ending total of 195.600 marked the Tigers' second highest overall team score achieved this season.
"For us to be at our best at the toughest meet of the year just says volumes about this team," said Auburn head gymnastics coach Jeff Graba.
"We were neck and neck with No. 11 Penn State and No. 14 Illinois the whole time. We pushed them to the final event and almost had it."
Although the Tigers were unable to come out on top, there's still hope for junior Kylie Shields who qualified with a 39.250 to compete in the all-around at the 2011 Women's Gymnastics NCAA Championship Saturday, April 16 at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
"We're basically competing against all the top athletes in the country," Graba said.
"It's usually pretty difficult to go with an individual. I think it'll be a tough run, but we feel that (Shields) has a pretty good opportunity in the all-around to at least do a decent job. We're hoping to finish near the top."
For the time being, Shields said her main priorities are to remain focused on her performance goals and diligent in her practices leading up to the upcoming meet.
"It would've been a lot better if the whole team had been with me, but after last year's regional and being so close and tying, then not getting it because the other girl had a 9.850, and I had a 9.800, was really tough," Shields said.
"That was my goal for this year. No matter what I wanted to get there. I did it. I accomplished my goal, and accomplishing your goal is a great feat. Now I'm going to train hard for these next two weeks and try to hit it big when I go to nationals...Never give up because even though I didn't make it last year, I pulled through this year, and I'm really excited that I made it. I overcame a lot of things this year, and I'm happy I'm going to Cleveland."
For Shields, the meet will not only be stressful, but more difficult as the judging and expectations intensify to ensure an appropriate and deserving competitor is placed in the winner's circle.
"The last three meets of the year, the judging gets quite a bit tougher than a regular meet," Graba said. "It's a little difficult at nationals. The score usually goes down a little bit because their job is to rank the athletes. They don't miss anything, and they're very picky about what they're expecting.
"It doesn't matter what (athletes) score, they just want to make sure they get their ranking correct. Our goal is more of a ranking goal. We're hoping she'll finish in the top 20 ranking-wise."
Shields averages 9.741 for vault, 9.794 for uneven bars, 9.775 for balance beam and 9.813 for floor.
Her all-around average is 39.175.
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