ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The No. 5 Auburn gymnastics team finished off the regular season with a score of 197.175 in a tri-meet with No. 3 Michigan and West Virginia Saturday at the Crisler Center.
The Tigers claimed three event titles on the day with Drew Watson winning the vault, Sunisa Lee earning a win on the bars, and Sophia Groth tying for the event title on beam.
Auburn finished second in the three-team event as Michigan won in front of a school-record crowd with a 197.950, and West Virginia finished third with a 196.400.
"We finally turned it on at the end of the meet," Auburn head coach Jeff Graba said. "I liked how we had to turn things around. We've had meets where things went well early in the lineup. You don't need to work with that. Where you need to work is where things don't go right. We had to do that in the first three events."
"You've got to go on to the next. It's comical that we're frustrated with a 197, and last year we would have tripped over ourselves for it. Expectations are higher. But we've got to move on. We've got SECs coming up in a week, so let's not over-analyze the problems, let's just move forward and get ready for the next meet."
Groth tied for her first collegiate beam title, sharing the top score with Michigan's Natalie Wojcik and Sierra Brooks as all three scored 9.95 on the event. Lee scored a 9.975 on bars to tie for her second-best score of the season, and Watson recorded a 9.925 on vault, tied for her second-best of the year.
"I've struggled on my vault the last couple of meets," Watson said. "You've got to be you and do your vault. I felt like I was trying to analyze other vaults, but really just doing my vault and doing what I knew how to do, I felt good.
"I felt like (today's meet) was what we needed. We haven't had a meet where we struggled and weren't able to bounce back, so learning from that. If you feed into that negative energy, it can go downhill fast, so being able to recognize that and flip it is really important going into postseason."
The Tigers will be back in action at next week's SEC Championships in Birmingham. Auburn will be in the night session, which begins at 7 p.m. at Legacy Arena.
BARS
The Tigers started off the day with a 49.375 on bars to take a lead of .025 over Michigan after one rotation. After a pair of 9.75 scores from Adeline Sabados and Groth, Cassie Stevens earned a 9.85, followed by a 9.875 from Aria Brusch. Gobourne turned in another strong performance with a 9.925, and Lee anchored with a 9.975, tying for her second-best score of the year.
BEAM
Led by an event-winning 9.95 from Groth to match her career-high, Auburn scored a 49.150 on beam. Brusch equaled her best road score of the season with a 9.875, and Stevens posted a 9.85. Olivia Hollingsworth led off with a 9.75, Lee scored a 9.725, and Gabby McLaughlin had a 9.275.
FLOOR
Derrian Gobourne led the way for the Tigers with a 9.95, her best on the road this season and her fourth straight score of 9.9 or better. Groth scored a 9.875 and Watson added a 9.85. Stevens and Lee both had scores of 9.775, and Hubbard led off with a 9.675 for a team score of 49.225.
VAULT
Auburn finished off the meet with a 49.425 on vault, their third-best of the season. Watson's event-winning score of 9.925 led the way as all six vaulters scored 9.825 or better. Stevens posted a 9.9, her second-straight 9.9 on the road. Lee and Sara Hubbard both scored 9.875, Gobourne had a 9.85, and Groth scored a 9.825.
No. 5 Auburn scores a 197.175 in regular-season finale at No. 3 Michigan
