AUBURN, Ala. – The Auburn gymnastics team is tied for fifth in this week's RoadToNationals.com rankings with a National Qualifying Score of 197.650.
"It's always exciting to see hard work pay off," head coach Jeff Graba said. "I'm glad to see us ranked fifth this week, but the real story is that we're pretty much guaranteed the night session at the SEC Championship now. We're also close to locking up the No. 2 seed for an NCAA regional. We've got a couple big road meets ahead of us, but this was an extremely productive weekend."
The Tigers (10-2-1, 5-1-1 SEC) are coming off a busy weekend as they hosted Florida on Friday and traveled to the annual Elevate the Stage meet Sunday in Huntsville. The Tigers tied the Gators Friday with a program-record 198.575 and finished second at Elevate with a 197.750. That score tied a program record road score.
Auburn closes out the regular season at No. 3 Michigan Saturday afternoon. The team will face off with the defending national champion Wolverines as well as West Virginia in a tri-meet at 3 p.m. CT in Ann Arbor, March 12.
Oklahoma jumped to the top spot and Florida moved to No. 2 with Michigan at third. Utah is fourth and Auburn is tied for fifth with Alabama. LSU is ranked seventh, while Kentucky is ninth. Missouri is in the top 15 at No. 11 and Arkansas returns to the rankings at No. 18. Georgia moved into the top 25 and is ranked No. 24.
Auburn is in the top five on beam and bars this week following big performances this weekend. The Tigers are fourth on beam with a 49.485 after setting a program record Friday night with 49.725. Auburn's 49.550 on bars at Elevate pushed the team to fifth in the event (49.445).
The squad is sixth on vault (49.380) and floor (49.490). Auburn set a program record on floor (49.800) and tied a program on vault (49.500) against the Gators Friday night.
Freshman Sunisa Lee is second nationally in the all-around with a 39.750 NQS. She has won seven-straight all-around titles this season. She is tied for first on beam at 9.980 and second on bars at 9.945. In addition, Lee is tied for sixth on floor with a 9.945 NQS.
Freshman Sophia Groth continues to have a stellar season on beam and is tied for seventh nationally with a 9.935 NQS. Seniors Drew Watson and Derrian Gobourne are in the top 20 on vault with a 9.895 and 9.890 NQS, respectively. Gobourne is tied for 10th on floor at 9.940.
