Auburn, Ala — Groundhog’s Day brings about a special meet for Auburn Gymnastics since this will be the first time Auburn has ever hosted a Quad meet in Neville Arena.
The Groundhog’s Day Gymnastics meet will be between the Auburn Tigers, Temple Owls, Fisk Bulldogs, and Talladega Tornadoes, with the Tornadoes being in their inaugural season for women’s gymnastics.
Auburn Gymnastics Coach Jeff Graba said, “I am excited about it, as we have two new programs joining us. I’m excited to see and give them an opportunity to get started.”
This meet is important because like Graba said, it allows two new programs to compete inside of an SEC arena for gymnastics, and it is the first time Auburn gets to host a Quad Meet.
Entering this meet the Tigers are ranked 15 in the nation, with a season average of 196.831 points per meet. However, across all four apparatuses (vault, bars, beam, and floor) Auburn is ranked inside of the top 20 nationally for each event.
On beam the Tigers rank 10th on the apparatus averaging 49.150, on floor the Tigers are 14th with a 49.363, on vault the Tigers are 16th averaging 49.175, and the Tigers rank 18th nationally on bars with a 49.144 average on the apparatus.
In terms of individual notes heading into the Groundhog’s Day meet, fifth-year Senior Cassie Stevens ranks 18th nationally in the All-Around competition with a 39.437 average and senior Olivia Hollingsworth is 40th nationally in the All-Around with a 39.287. Senior Gabby McLaughlin maintains her consistency on beam as she is 16th in the nation on the apparatus with a 9.894 average.
For Auburn though, even though they have some veterans on the squad, “we have a young team, that’s trying to see what we are capable of,” Graba said and has been saying throughout much of the season.
The meet against Temple, Fisk, and Talladega will provide an interesting challenge for Auburn, as more teams are competing, which may throw them off their routine, especially since Auburn is not as strong on the vault and bars as they are on the beam and floor.
Neville Arena will host the Groundhog’s Day Quad Meet between Auburn, Temple, Fisk, and Talladega at it will start at 7:00 pm CT.
