No. 6 Auburn at NCAA Ann Arbor Regional
AUBURN, Ala. (auburntigers.com) – The No. 6 Auburn gymnastics team is set to be the top seed at the NCAA Ann Arbor Regional Saturday, April 2, in Ann Arbor, Mich. The meet, hosted by No. 7 Michigan, will begin at 5 p.m. CT and will include the Tigers, the Wolverines, No. 18 Stanford, Penn State, New Hampshire and Eastern Michigan.
“I don’t think we could be more ready for the meet,” head coach Jeff Graba said. “Physically and mentally, the team is in a good spot. If we have a good performance, I believe that our score will hold up. It’s a badge of honor to be the one seed and the real benefit to us was that we got a good rotation. In the end, it’s about us doing what we do well and focusing on our thing. I think if we are doing a good job and we can duplicate what we’ve done at this point in the recent past, we will be fine.”
Auburn and Michigan are the top two seeds with Stanford coming in as the third seed. The Tigers will receive a bye to open the meet and will start in the second rotation on bars. From there, the rotation is as follows; beam, bye, floor, vault.
PROGRAM-BEST RQS SCORE
Following the SEC Championship, Auburn remained sixth in the national rankings with an RQS score of 197.150.
The No. 6 ranking is the all-time highest this far into the season for the Tigers. In addition, the team’s 197.150 is the highest-ever RQS score in program history. Auburn scored 197 five-straight times prior to the conference meet, which is also a program first.
Senior Caitlin Atkinson is tied for fifth nationally in the all-around with RQS score of 39.570. She is tied for seventh on beam (9.910), tied for 12th on floor (9.925) and tied for 31st on vault (9.880).
AUBURN AT NCAA REGIONALS
The 2015 edition of Auburn gymnastics saw the Tigers advance to the NCAA Championships for the first time since 2003 after finishing second at the NCAA Auburn Regional. Auburn’s score of 196.900 set a new program NCAA regional score record.
The Tigers have reached the NCAA Championships four times, coming in 1991, 1993, 2003, and 2015.
