No. 12 Auburn gymnastics fell to No. 7 Florida on Friday night 197.325-197.025, moving to 1-4 (0-2 SEC) on the season.
“We have to put all the pieces together,” said head coach Jeff Graba. “We have to start practicing putting the pieces together, and it was good to see the fight. It was good to see the determination, but we have to start earlier.”
Despite a 9.900 on vault from Sophia Groth to begin – a score that would end up as the best vault score of the meet – Auburn started shakily on vault, scoring a 49.100. Cassie Stevens scored the second-highest score for the Tigers on vault with a 9.875.
Stevens finished second in the all-around competition, totaling 39.575, behind Florida Gator Leanne Wong who scored 39.625. Along with her 9.875 on vault, Stevens scored a 9.875 on bars, a 9.900 on beam and finished the night with a 9.925 on floor.
Cassie Stevens on Bars against University of Florida at Neville Arena on January 19th 2024
The Tigers followed their shaky start on vault with a slow bars routine, scoring a 49.175. Olivia Hollingsworth took a fall during her routine, and Auburn’s best scores on the apparatus came from Gabby McLaughlin and Stevens with a pair of 9.875s.
Auburn’s slow start, however, was followed by a strong finish, but its finish was not enough to overcome the start to the meet in the team’s loss to Florida.
Ending the night on floor, the Tigers scored a 49.450, their best apparatus score of the night. Groth and Aria Brusch had a pair of 9.900s on the floor, and Stevens and McLaughlin had a pair of 9.925s.
“Our goal at this meet was to build off each event,” McLaughlin said. “We had a little bit of a rocky start in the beginning. So, we really tried to focus on building off of each other and just to keep pushing ourselves to get a little bit better."
Adding to the Tigers' strong finish was a season high 49.300 team score on beam. McLaughlin led the event with a meet-high score and a season high for the senior of 9.950.
“Gabby is a great example on beam,” Graba said. “It’s just demonstrating to the young people what it takes, and that’s what we need. We need the month of January to actually watch each other.”
Graba went on to voice that he overall he was happy with the team's performance – despite the loss.
“Great finish,” Graba said. “I’m actually really proud of the team…beam was a little bit better, and then floor was just floor again. So, it’s starting to be a little more predictable.”
Auburn gymnastics heads to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to take on the No. 4 Razorbacks in its next meet. The meet is on Friday, Jan. 26, and the start time is to be determined.
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Grace Heim is a junior from Enterprise, Alabama, majoring in English Literature. She started with The Plainsman in January 2023.
