AUBURN, Ala. — It's opening night on the plains for Auburn Gymnastics, with a top-25 matchup between the No. 12 Auburn Tigers and the No. 17 Arkansas Razorbacks to kick off the SEC season for both schools.
Auburn enters the night at 6-1 overall, with their one loss being to the No. 1 Oklahoma Sooners in the 2025 American Gold Collegiate Championships. The Tigers also won the 2025 Lone Star Collegiate in commanding fashion on January 11, 2025.
However, the Razorbacks are still searching for their first gymnastics win of the season. With only one meet under their belt, they ended the Sprout’s Farmer's Market Quad 0-3.
The Tigers enter their first meet with an average of 196.363 overall, and averaging 49.013 on Vault, 49.100 on Bars, 49.175 on Beam, and 49.075 on Floor.
So far this season Bars has appeared to be the Tiger’s most consistent event, however, that could be because for their first two meets they started with Bars and then continued through the rest of the apparatuses in order.
Luckily for Auburn, this meet is their first inside Neville Arena and the Jungle is usually ready and roaring during the floor routines, which could see scores improve across the board for the event.
Since it is a home meet, the Tigers will compete in the standard order for apparatuses: Vault, Bars, Beam, and finishing with Floor. The Razorbacks on the other hand will have to deal with the standard order of apparatuses for the visiting team: Bars, Vault, Floor, and finishing with Beam.
In addition to some gymnasts just competing in one event, there is also the All-Around competition where the gymnast competes on all the apparatuses to win the individual All-Around for the meet.
The Tigers have two gymnasts, Sophia Groth and Olivia Hollingsworth, who have competed in previous seasons for the All-Around Title. Hollingsworth is the only Veteran for Auburn who has competed for the All-Around title.
In Addition to Hollingsworth, true freshman Katelyn Jong has also competed in the All-Around, doing it for both of Auburn’s previous two meets with a season average of 39.337.
For the All-Around competition against Arkansas, it would not be shocking to see Jong and either Hollingsworth or Groth compete for the All-Around title, but Coach Grabba could through a curveball and have Gabby McLaughlin compete as well for the All-Around title.
McLaughlin is a 5th Year Senior and has competed in all four events in previous seasons for the Tigers, so if Grabba is looking to surprise the crowd with who will be competing in the All-Around against the Razorbacks, McLaughlin would be a logical choice.
The No. 12 Auburn Tigers will open SEC conference gymnastics with the No. 17 Arkansas Razorbacks inside Neville Arena at 6 p.m. CT on the SEC Network.
