March 13, 2015
By Ethan Brady
AUBURN, Ala. - No. 7 Auburn gymnastics finished its regular season on Senior Night with a 197.100-194.025 victory against North Carolina Friday. The team total of 197.100 tied for the fourth-highest score in program history and the fifth 197 of the season.
"We've been talking all week about not making it about the seniors, that it's actually a meet, that we actually have to do some stuff out there," head coach Jeff Graba said. "We are still capable of improving our RQS, our regional qualifying score, which is important. We had to make sure that we did a good job for the seniors, but at the same time that we didn't lose focus. I thought the girls did a really good job with that."
All five of Auburn's seniors, Bri Guy, Caryn Kadous, Kelsey Thomasson, Megan Walker and Brittany Webster were able to compete in their final regular season home meet.
"I remember talking to them early on about, `Hey if you guys buy into the program and help us lead, we'll get somewhere really special,' and it's just nice to see that they did all buy in, that they all did push really hard and fought through all the tough times," Graba said. "They've helped bring this program to a real special place."
Caitlin Atkinson, MJ Rott and Guy led the Tigers in the first rotation on vault with scores of 9.900, splitting the event title. Auburn scored a team total 49.425, the second highest vault total of the season.
"I've been working in the gym to try and get my vault to the way it was before last year, and I think I'm finally starting to figure it out," Guy said. "That showed tonight. It came out tonight. I couldn't really be any happier. I just kind of keep moving forward."
On bars, Auburn scored a team total 49.125 led by Walker's 9.900. The score earned Walker her third event title on bars this season.
"It was super exciting," Kadous said. "Honestly, I was trying not to be really excited. I was trying to calm down a little bit because everyone was up here and I told myself, `I got to bring it down.' We still have a whole postseason ahead of us so we have to keep our heads in the game, but it was an awesome night. We had a lot of fun."
Walker led the Tigers on beam with a 9.900, earning her ninth total event title of the season. Sophomore Kullen Hlawek scored a career-high 9.925 on floor to earn her first ever event title and help the Tigers to a 49.300 team total on floor.
"It was just so exciting hitting all of my passes and landings," Hlawek said. "We're in a good spot heading into postseason, and I'm excited to see how far we can go."
Auburn Arena featured 4,718 fans in attendance for Senior Night. Next Saturday, Auburn will head to the SEC Championship in Duluth, Ga., to compete in the night session against No. 2 Florida, No. 3 LSU and No. 5 Alabama. It is the first time in program history Auburn has competed in the night session.
"I'm excited," Graba said. "It's very unpredictable right now. We've never used the same lineup twice all year on any event, and it's a lot of fun to have the depth that we have, but it also makes for some tough coaching decisions. The nice thing is the people we plugged in tonight proved that they have a spot in the lineup as well. What we're going to go back to Monday and Tuesday is hard work. We're going to let it all hang out at SECs."
Tickets to the NCAA Regional at Auburn Arena on April 4 at 6 p.m. are on sale now as general admission tickets are $5 and reserved tickets are $8.
Go to AubTix.comfor regular season and NCAA Regional ticket information. For the latest updates on Auburn Gymnastics, follow the Tigers on Twitter, @Auburn_Gym or likehttps://www.facebook.com/AUGymnastics