AUBURN, Ala. – The Auburn gymnastics team is moving up after posting a season-high 196.700 to beat No. 4 LSU on Friday night. The Tigers climbed four spots to No. 13 in this week's rankings per RoadtoNationals.com.
On Saturday, Auburn will travel to No. 10 Missouri for its first road meet of the season.
"We are very happy with the performance last Friday, but in the SEC the schedule never lets up," Auburn head coach Jeff Graba said. "Now we are going to have to go on the road for the first time and try to duplicate the effort from last week against a very tough Missouri team.
"Our goal this week is to make our phenomenal effort from last week portable. We need to be great on the road in order to advance in the postseason, and this weekend will be our first opportunity to develop our team to be road warriors."
This week's top five has the same two teams at the top with Oklahoma (No. 1) and UCLA (No. 2), and then it's Florida making its debut at No. 3 after competing for the first time Friday night. Utah (No. 4) and LSU (No. 5) both dropped a spot in the rankings.
All eight teams from the SEC are currently ranked in the top 20 with four teams – Florida, LSU, Missouri and Georgia – ranked in the top 10. They're followed by Auburn (No. 13), Arkansas (No. 14), Kentucky (No. 16) and Alabama (t-No. 17).
Auburn also moved up into a tie for fourth on the uneven bars after earning a 49.500 against LSU. It was the second-highest bars score in the country so far and the second-highest score on the event in program history. Four of the six gymnasts who competed scored a 9.000 or better, including senior Abby Milliet (9.925), who is now tied for 14th nationally on the event.
Milliet is also ranked in the top 15 for the balance beam after she won the individual event title with a 9.900 against LSU.
Freshman Derrian Gobourne debuted at No. 11 for all-around after she posted a 39.475 to win a share of the all-around title against LSU in her first time competing in all four events. Gobourne is also now in the top 40 nationally on vault, bars and floor after Friday's meet.
