Auburn trailed throughout, but an impressive floor performance combined with some Alabama mishaps on the beam led to a fourth-rotation surge for the Tigers on the floor. As the second Alabama gymnast slipped, the crowd began to buzz, as victory began to feel realistic.
Auburn was able to come away victorious in its first home meet of the season, defeating Alabama 196.625-196.025.
For the Tigers, taking down No. 10 Alabama for the first time since 2016 and only the second time since Jimmy Carter was president, will be key for the team moving forward.
“I think confidence is the main thing that comes to mind,” head coach Jeff Graba said after the meet. “We have seven freshmen on the team. When they got here we basically told them we really, really needed them to get dialed in fast. The upperclassmen did a great job of trying to catch them up to speed because we started looking at our projected lineups, we knew we were going to have to use at least two in every lineup. The SEC is not built for using nine or 10 freshman routines.
It was a night of personal bests for Auburn, with seven players setting or tying their career-highs.
The Tigers also came away with the clean sweep of high scores, with Drew Watson’s 9.900 on the vault, Skyler Sheppard’s 9.925 on the beam and Gobourne with a 9.925 on the bars and 9.95 on the floor.
Gobourne’s 9.950 on the floor is what ended the night for the Tigers, sealing the victory.
“I was kind of looking forward and I saw it,” Gobourne said about Alabama’s second fall on the beam. “I didn’t know how much we needed to win, so I was just like, I’m gonna be normal.”
“That’s usually a good idea,” Graba added.
Even being the closer, Gobourne said she likes it and doesn’t put too much pressure on herself.
“I think we both thrive off the pressure,” Sheppard said. “Just because that spot has been earned through preseason and Derrian and I, I watch the people before me but I’m so confident in the six people and the five people that go in front of me that no matter what they do I feel confident enough to go. That’s just how much faith we have in our team.”
Auburn came into the matchup winning just 10 times to Alabama’s 127, making it a historic victory for the Tigers.
“I love that we won,” Graba said. “I feel like its more in the locker room that the girls have to know that they're capable. They have to know that they can compete against anybody. We kept talking all week, we wanted a close meet. A close meet sets us up for the end; the national championship, the regional meets, the SEC championship. When you have a tight meet, when the pressure is on and you have young people, they grow a lot. I feel like we have some home run hitters on this team and our freshmen are coming along.”
The second matchup with Alabama is slated for March 13th in Birmingham as a part of the Elevate the Stage event.
Auburn’s next meet comes at LSU next Friday before returning to Auburn Arena to take on Missouri on Jan. 24.
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