Auburn heads to SEC championship ranked No. 12 nationally

Auburn heads to SEC championship ranked No. 12 nationallyAuburn heads to SEC championship ranked No. 12 nationally
Cat Wofford/Auburn Athletics

AUBURN, Ala. – Auburn will wrap up the regular season ranked No. 12 in the NQS (196.695) after earning a 196.825 at home to beat Air Force over the weekend. It was the team's second-highest score of the season. 

Next up is the 2019 SEC gymnastics championship in New Orleans on Saturday. The Tigers will compete in the afternoon session, beginning at 3 p.m. CT, along with No. 10 Alabama, No. 19 Missouri and No. 20 Arkansas. 

"We are looking forward to starting the postseason off this Saturday in New Orleans," Auburn head coach Jeff Graba said. "We have an extremely tough session, but we are embracing the challenge. We have an opportunity to measure ourselves against some of the best teams in the country as well as improve our NQS with a quality road score. We are excited to get after it."

Auburn will kick off Saturday's afternoon session on bars where the team is currently ranked No. 7 nationally with an NQS of 49.365. The Tigers have earned a 49.300 or higher in eight of their 11 meets this season, including a 49.325 in Friday's win over Air Force. 

After bars, Auburn will move to beam and then floor before finishing the meet on vault. The Tigers are also among the top 20 teams in the country on both vault (13) and beam (19). 

All four teams in the night session at this year's SEC championship are ranked in the top 10 with LSU (No. 3), Florida (No. 4), Georgia (No. 8) and Kentucky (No. 9). Nationally, Oklahoma and UCLA are still ranked No. 1 and No. 2 respectively heading into the postseason.