AUBURN, Alabama. (EETV) - The Auburn Tigers, led by Suni Lee, marched into Athens and defeated the Georgia Bulldogs on the road for just the second time in program history.
The win wasn’t the only piece of program history for the Tigers, with a final score of 197.175-196.300 Auburn has scored 97 or higher in six straight matches, a program record.
“What I take away from this is you know yes, I know we’re really good when we are clicking. I just want to know how good we’ll be if we get into a struggle because you get into the postseason, and everything doesn’t go right you’ve got to know that you can qualify through.” said head coach Jeff Graba regarding Auburn’s slow start to the meet.
Lee led the Tigers in every event and earned the all-around title for the fourth consecutive meet with a score of 39.775.
Lee captured the title in all events scoring a 9.925 or higher in each which included a career-high 9.950 on the Floor. She is the first Tiger to win all four event titles since Kailyn Atkinson did it against Arizona St. in 2016.
“It feels really good” said Lee “I wanted to come to Auburn to make history and just to give the other girls an opportunity to be great too. So it feels really good to do that.”
Lee wasn’t only setting Auburn history but NCAA history as she became the first-ever gymnast to lay down a Yurchenko 1/2 on front layout on vault.
“It felt amazing. It’s something that I’ve worked before but never got back to compete so to go out and do something different, switch it up felt good” said Lee about her vault.
Sophia Groth was the only other Tiger to compete in the all-around doing so for the first time in her career. The freshman tied her career-high on the floor with a score of 9.950 en route to a 39.425 score in the all-around.
Sara Hubbard tied a career-high on the floor with a 9.800.
Derrian Gobourne and Drew Watson both record a 9.900 on vault to round out Auburn’s 9.9s.
Piper Smith took a scary fall when she missed the grab while performing on bars. The junior bounced back and record a 9.825 on beam to end her night.
The Tigers will be back in Auburn Arena on Friday, Feb. 25 when they play host to the Kentucky Wildcats. The meet will start at 6:30 p.m central time and will be broadcast on SEC Network.
BARS
Auburn started the meet on bars and after some hiccups from Sophia Groth scoring a 9.775 and Piper Smith scoring an 8.075 after missing the bar twice. Gobourne and Lee were able to stop the bleeding scoring a 9.850 and 9.925 respectively.
VAULT
Vault was headlined by Lee’s never before seen Yurchenko 1/2 on front layout which scored a 9.925. Two more Tigers recorded 9.9s with Gobourne and Watson each getting a 9.900. Hubbard and Groth scored a 9.875 and 9.850 respectively with Sara Walsh earning a 9.775 in her only event.
FLOOR
It was a quiet night on the Floor as Gobourne was scored just a 9.875 is what is usually an automatic 9.9 for the Tigers. Lee picked up the slack earning a career-high 9.950. Stevens and Groth joined Gobourne scoring 9.875s while Watson scored a 9.850.
BEAM
The Tigers sealed up the victory on the beam once again being led by Lee and a score of 9.975. Groth closely followed Lee scoring a 9.950. Cassie Stevens broke out her self-titled move en route to a 9.800. Olivia Hollingsworth had a scary dismount but walked away ok following her stumble.
