March 20, 2017
AUBURN, Ala. ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" The No. 21 Auburn gymnastics team earned a berth into the NCAA postseason and will travel to familiar territory, heading to Arkansas as the fourth seed for the NCAA Fayetteville Regional held April 1 in Barnhill Arena.
"Regionals is a hit meet," head coach Jeff Graba said. "It's not really who you are going up against because if you don't hit your routines, you aren't going to make it out. We have the scoring potential to advance, but we are going up against some very tough opponents and need to be ready to perform."
The Tigers will be joined by No. 1 seed and fourth-ranked team overall Utah. Denver and California will be the Nos. 2 and 3 seeds, while host Arkansas and Central Michigan are also set to compete.
The top two teams from each of the six regionals will advance to the NCAA Championships, April 14-15, in St. Louis.
The Tigers are coming off a season-high score at the 2017 SEC Championship, finishing sixth overall with a 196.550. That score tied for the third-highest team total in program history at the conference meet.
"We took away from SECs that we can compete with anyone in the country," Graba said. "We have a lot of talent on the team that isn't isolated to just one or two people. If the team takes confidence away from SECs and builds off it, we can be dangerous at the national level."
Auburn also finished with six All-SEC honors and had two earn a place on the SEC All-Freshman team.
The team enters the regional as the No. 21 team nationally with an RQS of 196.265. Auburn stands 16th on bars (49.185), 21st on vault (49.050), tied for 19th on beam (49.095), and 23rd on floor (49.175).
Individually, sophomore Taylor Krippner is 39th nationally on beam with a 9.885 RQS. Classmate Emma Engler it tied for 44th on bars (9.875), while senior MJ Rott is tied for 40th on vault (9.855).
Tickets for the Fayetteville Regional can be purchased here.
For the latest on Auburn gymnastics, follow @AuburnGym on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AuburnGym.