AUBURN, Alabama. (EETV) - The Auburn Tigers defeated the Kentucky Wildcats 197.925-197.150. The score for the Tigers is the highest in program history.
"It’s not surprising to me, we know what we are capable of,” said head coach Jeff Graba, “I thought they did a really good job when we got to bars about settling down, still had a couple hiccups but we didn’t let it get out of hand.”
Auburn recorded a program high in both bars and floor. On bars, the Tigers scored 49.575 with three gymnasts scoring career-highs. On the floor, the team scored a 49.675 with all five scores being a 9.9 or above.
Suni Lee scored her second perfect 10 of her collegiate career. The score came on beam, whereas her first came on bars. This is the freshman’s first 10 in front of a home crowd and Neville Arena let her hear it. Lee is the first Tiger to achieve perfect 10s in different events.
“Oh my god, it was so surreal,” said Lee about her perfect 10. “I mean it really does feel like a family the way that we all just celebrated together. It was pure happiness, it’s not anything I’ve ever experienced in my life, if I could relive that, I would”
For the second straight week, Lee has done a routine never-before-seen on the collegiate level as she performed her Nabieva on bars. The new move was good for a 9.975.
Following the first rotation, the Tigers were down after a strong bars performance by Kentucky, having four gymnasts scoring a 9.9 or above.
Auburn bounced right back in the second rotation breaking the program bars record to put the Tigers on top.
Going into the last rotation the squads were tied, but Auburn was able to put together the highest-scoring floor rotation in Auburn history to push past the Wildcats and score the highest overall score in program history.
Lee won her fifth straight all-around title with a score of 39.775. The St. Paul native did it by winning the bars and beam titles and got a share of the floor title. Sophia Groth was the only other Auburn gymnast to compete in the all-around and earned a score of 39.400.
Aria Brusch was back in the lineup for the Tigers after missing the last two meets. The junior competed in one event scoring a career-high 9.950 in bars.
“I was excited to be back in the lineup,” said Brusch “I took that time to rest and get my body back together. It just really goes to show that people need a break and sometimes breaks are good, I’ve found that breaks are really good for me.”
VAULT
After some interference by a member of the production crew, Groth led the tigers off scoring a 9.825. No Tiger scored a 9.9 and it was the lowest-scoring vault in the last three meets. Hubbard, Watson and Gobourne all scored a 9.875 while Lee scored a 9.825 to round out the Tigers
BARS
After a slow start on vault, the Tigers bounced back on bars. Auburn was led by Suni Lee who scored a 9.975, while Groth and Stevens both scored career-highs scoring a 9.875 and 9.925 respectively. The last two gymnasts to record scores for the Tigers were Adeline Sabados and Aria Brusch. Sabados scored a 9.850 while Brusch scored a 9.950 in her first meet back from injury.
BEAM
Auburn got off to a slow start in beam with Olivia Hollingsworth scoring a 9.825 and Stevens scoring a 9.700. The Tigers followed that up with big scores from Groth, McLaughlin and Lee. Groth scored a 9.950 while McLaughlin scored a 9.925. But it was Suni Lee’s perfect 10 that stole the show and tied Kentucky going into the final rotation.
FLOOR
In the final rotation, Auburn excelled with five of their six gymnasts scoring a 9.9 or higher en route to the best floor score (49.675) in Auburn history. Sara Hubbard and Cassie Stevens both scored 9.900s while Watson recorded a career-high 9.925. Lee and Gobourne rounded it out for the Tigers each scoring a 9.975 and winning the floor title.
Auburn will be back in action on Friday, March 4 when they host the No. 3 Florida Gators in Neville Arena. The meet is set to start at 7 p.m and will be broadcast on SEC Network.
