Sara Carver-Milne enters her fourth season associate head coach for Auburn gymnastics in 2025-26.
Carver-Milne leads the coaching staff’s efforts on beam, while also assisting in all other areas of the team. That includes floor and detail work as well as designing the team’s leotard collection every year.
In 2025, she guided the team to a Top 10 finish on beam, having a 49.385 NQS. Gabby McLaughlin reached the NCAA Championship as an individual for her efforts on beam and finished among the nation’s best with a 9.895 NQS. Freshman Marissa Neal and sophomore Paige Zancan also had solid seasons on beam, putting together a 9.895 and 9.890 NQS, respectively.
The Tigers scored 49.4 or better four times in 2025, including a pair of 49.45s. Neal earned a 9.975 vs. Oregon State (Jan. 24), while McLaughlin secured a 9.975 on the road at Missouri (March 9). Neal was named SEC Specialist of the Week for her efforts on beam in January.
The 2024 Auburn team put together a 49.420 NQS on beam, ranking 11th at the end of the season. Cassie Stevens earned All-America honors in the all-around and was among the nation’s best with a 9.915 NQS. McLaughlin also excelled in 2024 on beam, having a 9.920 NQS.
In her first year with the program, she helped guide three Tigers in Cassie Stevens (vault), Derrian Gobourne (floor) and Sunisa Lee (floor, all-around) to All-America honors.
In addition, five Tigers combined for 10 All-SEC honors in 2023. Among those include Gabby McLaughlin, who earned the conference recognition for her performance on beam.
Carver-Milne came to the Plains after spending 21 seasons at Brown University. She was named ECAC Conference Head Coach of the Year twice during her career and improved Brown’s RQS by seven points since taking over the program, breaking every individual and team record during her tenure.
Most recently, she guided her 2022 team to school records in overall score, vault, bars and floor.
She is no stranger to recruiting and coaching some of the world’s top gymnasts as she coached Olympian and World Champion Alicia Sacramone in 2007.
Carver-Milne coached the Bears to an ECAC championship in 2014 and back-to-back Ivy League titles in 2013 and 2014 as well as in 2016. She has guided her gymnasts to numerous USAG All-America honors, including a pair of USAG national champions in Mei Li Costa (2019 – bars) and Diana Walters (2014 – all-around).
She has guided her gymnasts to 10 individual ECAC championships and three conference Gymnast of the Year awards. She’s coached 14 NCAA regional qualifiers, including Sacramone who qualified for the NCAA championship with a regional floor victory.
In addition, her athletes have exceled in the classroom, earning multiple WCGA Scholastic All-America honors, ECAC and USA Gymnastics All-Academic awards and Academic All-Ivy recognitions.
Prior to Brown, Carver-Milne was a gymnast for 18 years and coached elite-level club teams in Texas. A 1997 graduate of Alaska-Anchorage, Carver-Milne was a NCAA gymnast and national competitor. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Public Communications.