Auburn Enters Week at No. 23 Nationally

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Jan. 8, 2018

AUBURN, Ala. ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" The Auburn gymnastics team kicks off its home schedule this week as the No. 23 team in the RoadtoNationals.com weekly rankings after the season-opening meet in Arizona Saturday.

"We had a good meet Saturday and checked all the boxes that we wanted to accomplish," head coach Jeff Graba said. "I'm excited to continue the improvement with this team and we're right on schedule for our expectations."

LSU is No. 1, while Utah, Central Michigan, UCLA, and Michigan are in spots 2-5. Kentucky stands at No. 6, Florida at No. 7, Alabama is ranked ninth, and Arkansas is 11th. A handful of typical Top 25 teams did not compete in the season-opening weekend, including Oklahoma, Georgia, and Missouri.

Auburn is among the nation's best on vault after last week's meet, ranking t-12th with a 48.825.

Freshman Drew Watson, who captured the vault title at the ASU quad meet, is tied for eighth nationally in the event. Junior Samantha Cerio took home the bars title with a 9.9 and is tied for seventh nationally.

The Tigers open their home slate in Auburn Arena this Friday, Jan. 12, hosting Missouri at 7 p.m. CT. Missouri entered the 2018 season at No. 17 in the NACGC/W Preseason Coaches' Poll. The two squads will go head-to-head on SEC Network+.

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