The Tigers are traveling to Seattle, WA. to compete against No. 2 Oklahoma and No. 20 Nebraska in the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers are coming off a five-meet losing streak and are looking to end that in this tournament.
Auburn will face top competition in Oklahoma, where the Tigers lost to the Sooners last time 197.925-195.95, during the SEC Championship tournament. The Sooners have the Tigers’ number this season, winning all three of the matchups.
The highlight of the SEC tournament was Auburn’s performance on the floor with an overall score of 49.3 on the event. Performances from Sophia Groth scoring 9.9, Gabby McLaughin and Olivia Greaves with 9.875 helped pave the way for a great floor event in the tournament.
This will need to continue in order to overcome great teams like Oklahoma and Nebraska. The Tigers have shown major growth on the floor but need to have a better team performance on bars, where they struggled in the SEC tournament.
Oklahoma ranks the top team in the nation on bars, beam and floor. It ranks third in the nation on vault. Jordan Bowers, Audrey Davis, Addison Fata and Faith Torrez have all had phenomenal all-around averages throughout the season.
Auburn will also face Nebraska at the meet, another familiar foe from earlier in the season. The Tigers were able to defeat the Cornhuskers 195.950-194.475.
A huge performance from freshman Katelyn Jong helped pave the way in this meet with an all-around score of 39.175.
Nebraska ranks No. 41 on vault, No. 21 on bars, No. 18 on beam and No. 21 on floor. Sophia McClelland, Emma Spence and Whitney Jencks have been the top all-around performers for the team.
Nebraska has come on late in the season and are on a 6-meet win streak. Auburn will look to defeat Nebraska again as it did in the very beginning of the season. The Tigers will need to do so through a great all-around performance like they had at the American Gold Collegiate Championship against the Cornhuskers at the start of the season.
The Tigers top-10 in vault and beam but are No. 19 on bars and No. 11 on floor. Bars have been an event Auburn needs to clean up and will be a crucial event to look at during the NCAA Tournament. Jong, Alex Irvine and Caroline Leonard will need to lead the way on this event for Auburn to have a chance of winning the tournament.
Auburn will travel to Seattle, WA. on Friday, April 4 to face off in the NCAA Tournament. The competition will take place in Alaska Airlines Arena and begin at 9 p.m. CST.
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Tyler Cox is a sophomore from Atlanta majoring in journalism. He joined The Plainsman in fall 2023.
