A meet between Auburn and Alabama came down to the final event.
With a 196.700-194.400 loss to the eighth-ranked Crimson Tide, Auburn finished with the regular season 5-2.
Following the loss, head coach Jeff Graba’s squad finished in second place in the SEC, the program's highest-ever finish.
“If you would have given us a shot at the beginning of the year to get five wins in the SEC and finish second in the conference, we would’ve all been absolutely ecstatic,” Graba said.
“To me, this is a tremendous year. We’re wrapping up the regular season, and we’ve got to stay focused on the end result. I’ve been saying that all week. I wanted them to be in this pressure and see how they reacted. I’d give them a ‘B’. They did a good job. They just didn’t do a good enough job to win tonight.”
Derrian Gobourne finished with her fifth all-around competition win, her second in as many weeks, with a 9.875 on bars while tying a career-high 9.900 on vault.
Gobourne added scores of 9.725 on floor and 9.775 on beam.
Abby Milliet took the win on beam after matching a career-high score of 9.925.
“It felt really good because for a few weeks now I’ve been feeling off a little bit,” said Milliet. “I really just wanted to go out there and no matter what, I was going to go and be normal me. That was my goal.”
Though Auburn remained optimistic throughout multiple lead changes, the team could not pull out the win.
“But we got better tonight, and we can take this on the road in the postseason and do something with this,” Graba said.
Auburn will face Alabama again next week as the teams participate in the annual Elevate the Stage meet on March 9 in Birmingham. The meet will begin at 7 p.m. CST.
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