The Auburn Tigers may not have won the SEC title, but they won’t be ashamed to have broken a school record.
Auburn placed third in the SEC championships on Saturday with a score of 197.225, behind Alabama and the SEC champions in Florida. The score is the Tigers’ best result in the SEC Championships in school history and the third-place finish is the highest for Auburn in the history of the championships’ third-place format. Freshman Sunisa Lee also won the bars event with a perfect 10, her fourth overall on the year.
The event didn’t start out well for the Tigers. Auburn had its first rotation on the beam and it had to count a fall, scoring a low 48.9 on the event. The Tigers bounced back, though, and both Lee and senior Derrian Gobourne were runner-ups on the floor with 9.95s. Fifth-year Drew Watson led Auburn on the vault with a 9.90 in its third rotation.
Lee’s perfect 10 on the bars came in Auburn’s final rotation. Gobourne had high praise for Lee’s performance, saying in a team release that the score after the Tigers’ rough start showed the team’s resiliency.
“That was phenomenal. The feeling was magical. It was like we were building off each other. It was so much fun. What matters is how you close it out. I’m super proud of this team. It shows how tough we are.”
Auburn’s next action will be as hosts at the NCAA Regionals on March 31 and April 2, where it hopes to advance on to the NCAA Championship in Fort Worth, Texas in mid-April.
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