The Auburn Tigers finished their season today in what some will think is an early exit, finishing in last place with a total score of 195.900. The exit was in large part due to a less-than-stealer performance on bars that included three falls.
"When you get to this meet, you have to be really good to move on," Auburn coach Jeff Graba said. "You can't have an event like we did on bars. We picked a bad night to have our worst night of the year."
The Tigers were again without their megastar in Sunisa Lee who has not been in action since the meet at Kentucky at the beginning of March due to a non-gymnastics related injury.
Although the night started with floor routines, the writing on the wall began in the third rotation, which was the bars rotation for the Tigers. Auburn started the event with three falls on the bars with scores of Olivia Hollingworth’s 9.225, Gabby McLaughlin’s 9.250, and Sophia Groth’s 8.875. The Tigers ended the event with a score of 48.225, and a total score of 146.725.
The night started with floor routines with the Tigers scoring a total of 49.375, with a highlight being Derrian Gobourne scoring a 9.925 to end her collegiate career.
Second rotation was vault with the Tigers ending with a score of 49.200 with Derrian Gobourne putting on another senior highlight with a score of 9.875, matching sophomore Caroline Leonard's lead-off score.
A bright spot for the Tigers came in the form of Hannah Hagle, as the freshman provided a 9.900 in the final rotation beam after taking her spot for the injured Lee. The Tigers ended the rotation with a score of 49.175, a total score on the night of 195.900.
"For (Hagle) to do that on beam was a huge deal," Graba said. "Caroline on vault, going 9.875 on a 9.95 (start value) vault. Derrian was great on floor. We got some really good performances, but as a group, not as consistent as we want."
Utah and Washington will move on to the next round this Saturday, April 1, with scores of 198.125 and 196.775 respectively. Meanwhile both Auburn and Southern Utah will watch the rest of the tournament on TV waiting for next year. There are still opportunities from individual qualifiers from both teams, specifically Gobourne on floor and Stevens on bars, but they will have to wait until Saturday's meet concludes.
