After scoring over 197 for the second straight meet but falling to No. 7 Florida, No. 13 Auburn is ready to travel to the No. 4 Arkansas Razorbacks for its first away meet of the season.
The Auburn Tigers are 1-4 to open the season and have recorded back-to-back SEC losses against Kentucky and Florida. However, Auburn has put up big numbers and despite the losses on the record, the Tigers seem to be holding strong and are ready for their next meet.
“Physically, I think we’re doing really good gymnastics at this point,” said head coach Jeff Graba.
The Tigers are coming off a 197.325-197.025 loss at the hands of Florida but did find improvement in scores on the floor and on beam with scores of 49.450 and 49.300, respectively.
On the floor, both graduate student Cassie Stevens and senior Gabby McLaughlin recorded the highest scores for the Tigers as they claimed a 9.925, leading to career highs for both. On top of that, graduate student Aria Brusch and junior Sophia Growth both recorded 9.900s to dominate the floor exercise on the night and rally up a score of 49.450.
As for the beam, McLaughlin earned the highest score of the night with a 9.950, helping the Tigers recover from a 9.700 score earlier in the rotation. Stevens once again dominated the beam with a score of 9.900 to contribute to a score of 49.300.
Although Auburn has four losses to this point, facing only top 10 opponents so far, Graba doesn’t see it as a bad thing.
“I do think all top-10 matchups with a young team is a good thing,” Graba said.
Brusch believes that strong competition is beneficial to the team.
“Starting out with matchups with the top-10 teams has been really good for us,” Brusch said. “Our goal is to be more than a top-10 team, so we know where we’re lacking and we know what to shoot for.”
For the Razorbacks, this will be their third meet of the season and are currently 1-0-1, winning their meet against Georgia and drawing against Alabama in a contested meet with both teams scoring 197.525.
Arkansas had a consistent night on all events with its best event being vault with a score of 49.425, and its second-best events were beam and floor with scores of 49.400 against Alabama. On vault, junior Leah Smith and sophomore Lauren Williams got the highest scores for the Razorbacks as they both scored 9.925. On beam, junior Maddie Jones along with Williams recorded the highest scores with a 9.875, and on the floor, Smith once again had a strong showing with a score of 9.925.
The Tigers will need to improve on their vault performance in their meet against Arkansas as it’s been one of their least-favorable events in their meets through the season and maintain their dominance on the floor. Arkansas will want to stay consistent with its 197 or better scores in its first two meets of the season.
The last meet between both teams ended in a 197.100-196.825 win for the Tigers, and Auburn will hope to maintain its five-game winning streak against Arkansas alive and defeat the Razorbacks away from home.
Auburn will face off against Arkansas at Barnhill Arena on Friday, Jan. 26 at 6:45 p.m. CST, and the meet will be televised on SEC Network+.
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Hector Hernandez is a freshman from Huntsville, Alabama, majoring in building science. He joined The Plainsman in fall 2023.
