For the first time since 2016 and only the second time ever, the Auburn gymnastics team left Athens, Georgia, with a win Friday night. The No. 7 Tigers defeated the Georgia GymDogs by a score of 197.175 to 196.300.
“No, it’s not the best score,” said Auburn head coach Jeff Graba. “But you’ve got to go on the road, you’ve got to grind it out, and you’ve got to win some of these. That’s the second win in the history in Georgia for Auburn. …For this young group to do it with some struggles, they’d better take some confidence from that.”
Freshman Sophia Groth, though in just her first year with the program, knows the significance of making history.
“It’s so important,” Groth said. “I love making history with this team, and it happens week after week. And so I think it’s just building the anticipation, and I know we have a lot more left because tonight was not a setback, but it wasn’t what we wanted so I am looking forward to building off of this.”
For the fourth time in a row, Suni Lee won the all-around title. This time, however, Lee won the title in every event. Lee scored a 9.925 on uneven bars, a 9.925 on vault, a 9.950 on floor exercise and a 9.975 on balance beam to earn an individual score of 39.775. Lee set new career-high scores on vault and floor and tied her career-best on beam.
“It feels really good,” Lee said. "I knew I wanted to come to Auburn to make history and give all the other girls an opportunity to be great too, so it feels really good to do that.”
Lee’s vault was especially significant as she debuted a new vault, a Yurchenko half-front layout that had never before been attempted in an NCAA gymnastics meet.
“It felt amazing,” Lee said. “It’s something that I worked before but never thought that I could compete, so to kind of go out there and do something different, switch it up, do a different vault than just a boring Yurchenko full felt good.”
In addition, Groth made her all-around debut, scoring a 39.425. Groth’s night was highlighted by a 9.95 on the beam in a pressure situation.
“We’ve done really well on beam the past couple weeks and we’re a really strong beam team so I was excited to end on a strong event,” Groth said. “I know we had some mistakes early on and the pressure was on, but I just wanted to get up there and do my job and do what I know how to do.”
Despite Groth’s success on beam, Graba seemed more impressed with how she responded after making a mistake during her bars routine.
“I just thought [Groth] was fantastic,” Graba said. “The way she fought at the end of that bar set to get off the bars and do what she did, that’s who that girl is. She’s such a fighter, and I’m just really impressed with her because that sort of set the tone. It might not be a real clean night, but we’re going to fight tonight.”
Auburn started the meet on bars, where Lee’s 9.925 led the way. The Tigers scored a 49.150, their worst event score of the competition. It was the lowest score on bars for Auburn since the opening meet of the season in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Georgia’s vault score of 49.175 placed the Tigers slightly behind after the first rotation.
In the second rotation, Auburn competed on vault, scoring a 49.400. The Tigers had three scores of 9.9 or better to close out the rotation, with Drew Watson and Derrian Gobourne earning scores of 9.9 and Lee’s historic vault getting a score of 9.925.
Meanwhile, Georgia struggled on the uneven bars. The GymDogs had to count two scores of 9.7 or worse, leading to an event score of 48.825 and giving Auburn a lead of 0.550 going into the third rotation.
Auburn then headed to the floor, where they electrified the crowd of 10,224 in Stegeman Coliseum, most of whom were clad in red and black. The Tigers did not have to count a score below 9.850 and dropped a 9.8 en route to a floor score of 49.425, the second-highest score for Auburn on the event. Lee’s career-high 9.95 highlighted the event for the Tigers.
The Tigers expanded on their lead after the third rotation despite Georgia’s season-high score on beam. The GymDogs, like Auburn, did not have to count a score of below 9.85 in the rotation, but Auburn was able to add to its lead and led by 0.700 going into the fourth and final rotation.
Auburn concluded the night on beam, an event in which the Tigers ranked second nationally. It seemed as if victory was imminent, as long as Auburn did not count a fall.
The first gymnast of the rotation, Olivia Hollingsworth, suffered a rare fall on her dismount and scored a 9.175, putting the outcome in serious doubt.
As the next five gymnasts on the event performed, however, the Tigers got hit after hit in the pressure situation. The Tigers would only have one more score below a 9.8, capped off by Lee’s 9.975, and most importantly everyone stayed on the beam, allowing Auburn to drop the fall and sealing the win for the Tigers.
“I know we’re really good when we’re clicking,” Graba said. “I just want to know how good we’ll be if we get into a struggle because if you get into the postseason and everything doesn’t go right, you’ve got to know that you can qualify through. … I think it says that our team is better and is growing tonight.”
Georgia’s floor score of 48.950 made it a final score of 197.175 to 196.300. The Tigers’ score was historic as it was the sixth consecutive 197 or higher for the Tigers, the longest such streak in program history.
It was the seventh meet victory of the season for Auburn, compared to just one loss. The Tigers will return home next week to face No. 10 Kentucky. The meet will begin at 6:30 p.m. CST on Friday, Feb. 25, and will be televised on SEC Network.
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Matthew is a senior from Huntsville, Alabama, majoring in journalism. He started with The Plainsman in fall 2021.
Twitter: @mattwallaceAU
