BATON ROUGE, La. – Bruce Pearl said it best in his pre-game speech to the Auburn gymnastics team before the Tigers competed in the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional on Friday.
"Adversity does not build character. It reveals it."
This group was tested Friday night when senior Samantha Cerio suffered an injury on the first pass of her floor routine. The crowd fell silent. The other teams stopped what they were doing. The whole meet essentially came to a halt as Cerio was eventually carted off the floor.
At the time of the injury, Auburn was wrapping up its second rotation of the night and looked to be in position to finish in the top two and advance to Saturday's Regional Final. It could have all gone for naught, though, as everything changed in that one moment. With the season hanging in the balance, how would this team respond to adversity?
"It can go either way," senior Abby Milliet said. "Sam is just so passionate in everything she does, especially with this team. So I circled everybody together and I said, 'We're not going to do this. We're not going to get sad. We can be sad later because it is sad. But we're going to do what she would want us to do and light this fire. This is time for us to have a new fire. Sam wouldn't want us to give up. She would fight harder.'"
"I think Abby said it best," added sophomore Drew Watson. "Sam wouldn't want us to fall apart. Sam is the most team-oriented, team-spirited person on our team. She wants everything for the team. She always has the stuff that we need. Whether it's nail clippers or hair stuff, she's always there. And she wouldn't want us to fall apart."
To understand what transpired next, you have to understand who Cerio is and how much she truly means to this team.
There's the gymnastics side where Cerio has been the team's top performer on bars for most of the season and is tied for 41st nationally in NQS. She's also been rock solid on floor down the stretch. But that only tells half the story.
The senior, who was recently named the SEC co-scholar athlete of the year, has been a role model to everybody on the team. Like Watson said, she's always there when called upon because she cares so much for her teammates. The last thing she said to head coach Jeff Graba before leaving the arena Friday night was "Go help the girls."
"She's the heart and soul of the team," Graba said. "This is what she's poured into the team for four years now."
So no, Auburn did not fall apart. Instead, the team rallied. The Tigers went to vault next where they earned a season-high 49.350. Then on bars where junior Katie Becker took the place of Cerio in the lineup, all six gymnasts scored a 9.825 or higher on the event to match their performance on vault with another 49.350.
"I think in the back of our minds we were all thinking that we know we can do it," Watson said. "And I think we all just had Sam in the back of our minds. We were pushing through for her."
The Tigers finished the meet with a 197.075, the highest Regional score in program history, to advance to Saturday's Regional Final. Though Cerio will not be available Saturday, she will continue to be a source of inspiration for her teammates.
The motivation for the rest of this season? Stick it for Sam.
Greg Ostendorf is a Senior Writer for AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @greg_ostendorf