No. 14 Auburn gymnastics heads to Berkeley, California, this weekend for the NCAA Regionals where the Tigers will compete against California, Stanford and Southern Utah.
Auburn is competing in the Berkley Regional where California is the No. 1 seed and Auburn is the No. 4 seed.
California gymnastics, ranked third nationally, is coming off the program's first-ever outright conference championship in the regular season. The Bears rank second nationally on bars and beam, third on floor and sixth on vault while averaging a meet score of 197.833.
Cal sophomore eMjae Frazier leads the Bears in all four events and ranks third nationally in the all-around competition, averaging a 39.588. The All-Pac-12 First Team member in ranks fourth nationally on bars, sixth on beam and ninth on floor.
Also keys to the Bears lineup is junior Mya Lauzon and junior Maddie Williams. Averaging a 39.635, Lauzon ranks sixth in the country in the all-around competition. The All-American honoree ranks fifth nationally on vault and beam. Williams has dominated this season on the uneven bars where she averages 9.921 and ranks fourth in the nation.
Stanford sits at 19th in the country heading into the Berkley Regional, averaging a meet score of 196.563. They rank in the top 25 on three events– bars, beam and floor. Stanford finished in fourth place at the Pac-12 championships with a team score of 197.175.
Chloe Widner and Anna Roberts have led the Cardinals on beam and floor this season. Widener finished second on beam and Roberts on floor in their conference championship with scores of 9.950.
Rounding out the Tigers' session is Southern Utah, who ranks 33rd in the nation, averaging 196.050 per meet. The Thunderbirds bested San José State on Thursday in a first-round play-in to enter the session. Southern Utah won the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Conference Championship where it scored a 196.625.
The Auburn Tigers head into the NCAA Regional ranking 11th on beam, 16th on floor, 17th on vault and 18th on bars while averaging a 197.108 per meet.
Auburn will start the meet on the floor where the Tigers will be led by seniors Olivia Hollingsworth and Gabby McLaughlin, who both have a 9.915 NQS for the event. MCcLaughlin is averaging a 9.858 on floor and Hollingsworth is averaging a 9.869.
The Tigers will move to vault for the second rotation of the competition where six of their top eight gymnasts have 10.0 start values. From vault, Auburn moves to bars where Aria Brusch, Cassie Stevens, Olivia Greaves and Hollingsworth are coming off 9.9s at the SEC Championship in which the Tigers scored a season-best score on the apparatus.
Auburn finishes the night with its best event – the balance beam – where the Tigers average a score of 49.304. McLaughlin and Stevens lead the event for Auburn with a 9.920 NQS and 9.915 NQS, respectively.
The Tigers compete in the night session which begins at 9 p.m. CST after the afternoon session of the Berkeley Regional that includes No. 2 seed Denver, No. 3 seed UCLA, Arizona State and Washington.
The leading pair of teams from each session will progress to the Sweet Sixteen, scheduled for 7 p.m. CST on Sunday, April 7. Following that, the top two teams from the Sweet Sixteen will proceed to the NCAA Championships, taking place from April 18 to April 20 in Fort Worth, Texas.
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Grace Heim is a junior from Enterprise, Alabama, majoring in English Literature. She started with The Plainsman in January 2023.
