Auburn gymnastics moves on to Sweet Sixteen

Auburn, along with SEC rival Kentucky, advanced to the next round of the NCAA postseason.

The postseason isn’t over just yet for the Auburn Tigers.

Auburn’s gymnastics team will advance to the NCAA’s gymnastics Sweet Sixteen after being one of the two best teams in its group in Thursday’s afternoon quad-meet. The Tigers’ 197.500 was enough to defeat Southern Utah and the SEC rival Georgia Bulldogs and punch their ticket to the next round of the postseason, but the SEC rival Kentucky Wildcats bested Auburn with a score of 197.750.

The Tigers will be most proud of their score on beam, their highest of the night. Auburn netted a 49.975 on the event and freshmen [autotag]Sunisa Lee[/autotag] and [autotag]Sophia Groth[/autotag] both got to put on a clinic — Lee was awarded the highest score of the meet with her beam routine, scoring a 9.975, and Groth supplemented it nicely with a 9.95 of her own.

The last of Auburn’s All-American trio, senior [autotag]Derrian Gobourne[/autotag], dazzled as well. Gobourne tied for the event win on the floor with a 9.95. Gobourne also contributed with a 9.85 on the vault and on the uneven bars.

Auburn will now wait until Saturday at 5 p.m. CT for the Sweet Sixteen portion of the regional. The Tigers will face the two best teams from Thursday night’s group of Denver, Ohio State, Iowa State and the Florida Gators, the undisputed SEC champions.

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