On an emotional senior night, the seventh-ranked Auburn gymnastics team sent its three seniors out with a 197.175-193.275 win over Arizona State.
Seniors Caitlin Atkinson, Lexus Demers and Kait Kluz were honored before their final meet in Auburn Arena, and though some tears were shed, Atkinson was proud they were able to put the feelings aside and perform.
"We didn’t let the emotions get to us, which was really good," Atkinson said. "Once it was time to go, we had to put on a show, and that’s what we did. I don’t think I could have had a better senior night, and I’m glad I got to do it with this team because I couldn’t ask for a better team."
Atkinson came away with All-Around honors for the fourth time this season, and she was glad she got to do it in front of the Auburn fans one last time.
"Being able to do what I’ve done for the last four years for this crowd, for the fans, for the community, it is something special," Atkinson said. "It’s something that I’ll take with me for the rest of my life, and I think it’s made me a better person for it and taught me a lot of life lessons."
Auburn was able to top 197 for the fifth straight week, and though he was nervous beforehand, Auburn coach Jeff Graba was pleased with his team's performance.
"This is always my least favorite meet of the year, senior night, just because there’s so many emotions that are involved in the night that have nothing to do with our performance," Graba said. "And you pile on top of that that this meet was extremely important. We had to do well at this meet to get night session [at the SEC Championships], and it makes coaches nervous. I was happy with the result, I felt like we were tight all night. I didn’t really feel like this was a great performance, but on floor, we’re really good at it, and we let it all hang out and we did a good job.”
The Tigers opened the meet with a 49.225 on vault, led by Atkinson's 9.900.
Auburn then posted a 49.250 on bars, again led by Atkinson's 9.925.
Up next was beam, where Auburn scored a 49.100, led by Atkinson's 9.925.
The Tigers finished strong on floor, scoring a program-record 49.600. Atkinson scored a 9.975, followed by MJ Rott's 9.950 and Kullen Hlawek's 9.925.
“For my [floor] performance, I feel like I can do a lot better, even though my score was a 9.950," Rott said. "There are still little things I need to practice to get better and to get a better score. But everybody else, we just kept building off of each other. Overall, it wasn’t the best performance that we’ve had, but it was still a pretty good performance.”
Auburn finished the regular season 8-5 overall and 4-3 in the SEC. The Tigers will travel to Little Rock, Arkansas, to compete in the SEC Championships on Saturday, March 19.
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