Auburn’s third meet of the season got off to a slow start after a 9.650 from Jada Glenn, but a career-high 9.950 from Drew Watson quickly got the Tigers back on track en route to a 196.700-196.650 victory.
“Pretty good night I think,” head coach Jeff Graba said after the meet. “This was our last meet where we’re trying to play with lineups and give people opportunities. We did a lot of exhibitions tonight and I think, for the most part, it turned out pretty good.”
While the meet was close early with Missouri trailing by just .025 after the second rotation, the Tigers' Aspen Tucker posted a 9.150 and Alisa Sheremeta posted a 9.250 on the floor leading to a .475 Auburn lead.
The final rotation from Missouri brought the match closer, but even a Derrian Gobourne 9.100 couldn't salvage a victory.
Vault had been a weak point this season for Auburn as they averaged just 48.858 coming into the meet. Behind the 9.950 from Watson, Auburn posted its season-high on the vault with a 49.275.
“We probably struggled a little bit on vault at LSU,” freshman Cassie Stevens said. “We were able to come back this week a lot stronger with a good start and I think we kept that momentum going pretty well throughout the entire meet.”
Auburn also posted a season-high 49.275 on the bars, with freshman Aria Brusch scoring a 9.900.
“What we focused on on bars was necessarily like, building off of each other,” Gracie Day said. “If one person in front of us didn’t have their best routine we just tried to focus on ourselves and what you needed to do and getting your job done rather than trying to make up for something.”
Coming into the meet Auburn was ninth in the country on the beam, averaging a score of 49.058. Auburn beat that average, scoring 49.100 but that doesn’t mean the team was satisfied with their performance.
“In reality I’m frustrated a little bit because we were better than this this week in practice,” Graba said. “Some of the issues that popped up were self-inflicted wounds. It’s a young team. The frustration is that I was hoping we’d have it behind us and its still sort of in there a little bit.”
Even with a 196.700, Graba still wants to see more out of his team.
“I hear 196.700 is a good score,” Graba said. “I don’t think for this team it is. I think this team is better than that. We as a staff are starting to judge them on a higher standard. I was happy with the fight tonight, I do believe they kept their head down. It got to be a tight meet at the end, which is great. But we should be better than this.
Auburn will have a longer week between meets, as they travel to take on Georgia next Sunday, Feb. 2nd.
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