Tag: Sunisa Lee

Auburn checks in at No. 17 in WCGA preseason rankings

Auburn, as well as the rest of the SEC, is set to be extremely competitive again in 2024.

Preseason rankings were released Friday and the Auburn Tigers are ranked No. 17 according to the Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association’s poll.

The SEC is set to be a very competitive environment this year, as all eight teams rank in the top 20, and four are ranked in the top 10. The Florida Gators are the conference’s highest squad, checking in at No. 2 in the initial poll.

Without [autotag]Derrian Gobourne[/autotag] and [autotag]Sunisa Lee[/autotag] on this year’s roster, Auburn head coach [autotag]Jeff Graba[/autotag] knows that his team will have to perform at a high level each week to achieve their goals for this season.

“The SEC is always very competitive, and this year is no different,” Graba said in a press release. “It will be a tight season once again this year with every conference team in the top 20. It will be a very exciting year and we’re looking forward to getting the season started!”

Despite Lee and Gobourne not returning this year, Auburn returns several key performers such as [autotag]Gabby McLaughlin[/autotag], [autotag]Olivia Hollingsworth[/autotag], [autotag]Sophia Groth[/autotag], and [autotag]Cassie Stevens[/autotag]. Several talented transfers have also joined the roster this offseason, such as [autotag]Anna Hill [/autotag](Temple) and [autotag]Madelynn Crow[/autotag] (Georgia).

Auburn will officially open the season on January 6th at the 2024 Super 16 Challenge in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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Auburn gymnast Sunisa Lee receives another weekly conference award

Lee shares her honors this week with LSU’s Haleigh Bryant.

Auburn’s [autotag]Sunisa Lee[/autotag] has picked up right where she left off in her final season on the Plains. And as per usual, the conference has recognized her talent.

Lee picked up another weekly award from the SEC on Tuesday, earning an SEC Gymnast of the Week award that will be shared with LSU all-arounder Haleigh Bryant. The award comes after Auburn defeated the Arkansas Razorbacks 197.500-196.675.

It was another all-around title for the Olympic medalist on Friday, as Lee netted a 39.750. The night also saw a career record for Lee — her bars score of 9.975 to begin the meet was a collegiate record for her. LSU’s Bryant also scored a 39.750 in the all-around, and her efforts to propel her own squad team over the Missouri Tigers. Lee and Bryant are set to face off against each other on Feb. 10 at Neville Arena.

Before that, though, Lee and the team will host the ACC’s North Carolina State at home on Friday at 7 p.m. CT.

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Auburn gymnast Sunisa Lee wins SEC Gymnast of the Week

Suni Lee is ahead of the curve, as her first gymnast of the week award didn’t come until February last year.

It didn’t take long for Auburn’s [autotag]Sunisa Lee[/autotag] to make an impact in her last season on the Plains.

The gymnastics team announced Tuesday that Lee has been selected as the SEC Gymnast of the Week for the opening week of the gymnastics season. Lee won three such awards last year, though her first one didn’t come until February in 2022.

Auburn kicked off its year at the 2023 Super 16 Challenge, where it faced off against Michigan, Oklahoma and UCLA in Las Vegas. The team scored 197.350 points, which wasn’t enough to beat the Wolverines or the Sooners but was able to beat the Bruins and start the year off 1-2. Lee was a standout during the matches, however, winning the all-around at 39.750 and scoring a 10 on her beam rotation.

The Olympic gymnast’s sophomore year was announced by Lee to be her last at Auburn during the offseason, as she plans to train for the upcoming 2024 Olympics in Paris once this collegiate season concludes. Until then, though, she’ll look to help guide the Tigers back to gymnastics’ Final Four, where the team placed fourth in 2022.

Lee will go up against another one of NCAA’s most vaunted gymnasts, Trinity Thomas, when the Tigers face the Florida Gators in Gainesville on Friday.

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Vikings announce special guest to sound Gjallarhorn at Saturday’s game

The star winger will sound the Gjallarhorn

The Minnesota Vikings are set to host the New York Giants in a Christmas Eve showdown on Saturday. Since the Vikings are at home, they’ll continue a tradition of sounding the Gjallarhorn, something that they’ve started since the opening of US Bank Stadium in 2016.

This Saturday, Minnesota Wild star left wing Kirill Kaprizov will get the honor of sounding the horn. Kaprizov is the first Wild player since center Erik Haula to sound the Gjallarhorn.

Other notable people that have sounded the Gjallarhorn this season:

Sylvia Fowles – Former Minnesota Lynx 
Cris Carter- Former Vikings Wide Receiver
Lonnie Warwick – Former Vikings Linebacker
Charlie Huizinga – Child battling acute Leukemia
Jared Allen– Former Vikings Defensive End
Paul Nakasone- United Stated Four-Star General
Sunisa Lee- Women’s Gymnastic Olympic Champion 
Jairus Wright- Former Vikings Wide Receiver 

Auburn Morning Rush: Gymnastics begins starting preparations, more Tigers win awards

Here’s some news you may have missed with the Auburn Morning Rush:

Happy Wednesday, Auburn fans.

While the football season may be over for the Tigers this holiday season, that doesn’t mean that Auburn sports as a whole have come to a halt. Quite the opposite, in fact — the gymnastics team is gearing up for its first action in months with its upcoming preview meet. On top of that, players on the volleyball and soccer teams have been recognized with awards and 41 Auburn athletes have signed a new NIL deal that will give them cash compensation from an Auburn collective.

Check out some stories you may have missed below with the Auburn Morning Rush:

Auburn all-arounder Sunisa Lee announces upcoming NCAA season will be her last

The Olympic gold medalist is returning to the Plains for one last ride.

The Tigers are getting another season of gymnastics standout [autotag]Sunisa Lee[/autotag], but they should cherish that time while they have it.

Lee announced on her social media on Tuesday that while she will be returning to the Plains for her second collegiate season in 2023, the upcoming NCAA gymnastics season will be her last at Auburn. Lee said in the video that she wishes to focus on preparation for the 2024 Paris Olympics after her final season has concluded.

“I’ve always had this tiny voice in the back of my mind telling me I wasn’t done with elite and wanted to give it another shot,” Lee said in the video. “As you near the end of an Olympic cycle and get closer to the Games themselves, training ramps up to a point where it is completely a full-time job. Seven to eight hours a day, six to seven days a week. I know that to have the best shot to represent my country again, but I need to dedicate that time, and this decision allows me to do that.”

Lee has been nothing short of spectacular for the Tigers. So far, she’s racked up eight All-American nods across all four events, won 2022 SEC Freshman of the Year and was named to the All-SEC team in a campaign where she helped lead the Auburn Tigers to gymnastics’ Final Four. Her stardom in the Olympics and continued production has also made her one of the NCAA’s leading athletes in NIL.

Lee will kick off her farewell tour on the Plains with an immediate jump into SEC play when the Tigers face off against the Arkansas Razorbacks at home.

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Auburn’s Suni Lee among top NIL earners in women’s sports

Lee is the second-highest earner in women’s sports and the 10th-highest earner overall.

Auburn’s [autotag]Sunisa Lee[/autotag] is at the top of her game in the gymnastics world, but that doesn’t just go for performance.

A new ranking by On3 detailed the top 10 highest-paid women athletes by NIL in the college landscape, and Lee clocked in at No. 2 with an estimated 1.5 million dollars made from NIL deals. She was only bested by another gymnast, LSU’s Olivia Dunne, who topped the list with 2.4 million dollars in NIL money. Dunne ranks fifth overall on On3’s NIL 100 while Lee closes out the top 10 in 10th place.

Both Lee and Dunne are the only female athletes in On3’s NIL 100. Regarding exclusively female athletes, Lee is one of four gymnasts on the list — the rest of the women in the top 10 are basketball players, led off by UConn point guard Paige Bueckers. While Dunne and Lee top the list as members of SEC schools, the other two gymnasts, Jordan Chiles (UCLA) and Jade Carey (Oregon State) represent the PAC-12.

Lee is set to return to the Auburn Tigers for her sophomore year and will compete against Dunne, a junior, in 2023. The two teams met twice in 2022, with LSU taking the regular season victory and Auburn emerging victorious in the SEC championship.

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WATCH: Suni Lee delivers epic first pitch at Minnesota Twins game

Lee returned to her home state to add some gymnastics flair to the traditional first pitch.

Very rarely does a student-athlete have a distinguished career BEFORE stepping on campus. The one exception for Auburn athletics is gymnastics superstar [autotag]Sunisa Lee[/autotag].

Just months before taking her first college class, Lee won a gold medal with Team USA in the All-Around event, as well a bronze medal in the uneven bars during the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

Friday, Lee returned to her home state in Minneapolis, Minnesota to throw out the first pitch at the Minnesota Twins’ game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Target Field. In true Suni Lee fashion, she delivered the first pitch with incredible style.

Lee will return to Auburn for her sophomore season in 2023. As a freshman in 2022, Lee reached a perfect 10.000 score five times in two different events. She reached the perfect score three times on beam against Kentucky on February 25, against Florida on March 4, and finally at the NCAA Regionals on April 2.

On the bars, she reached 10.000 twice, once at LSU on February 2, and again at the SEC Championships on March 19.

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Auburn gets two mentions in 2022 ESPY nominations

One of them will please Tigers fans — the other, not so much.

The Auburn Tigers are getting some representation at ESPN’s 2022 ESPY awards.

The Plains are a part of two nomination categories for the ESPYS, which take place on July 20. To Auburn fans’ delight, [autotag]Sunisa Lee[/autotag] was nominated for two categories, top women’s Olympian and top women’s athlete. To their likely dispair, however, Auburn’s other nomination comes at the brunt end of Alabama’s victory in the Iron Bowl last year, as the comeback led by Crimson Tide quarterback Bryce Young is nominated for best game.

Lee was phenomenal for Auburn in 2022. She received four All-American nods, was a Honda Award finalist, was crowned SEC Freshman of the Year and made the SEC’s All-Freshman team and All-SEC team. She was instrumental in propelling the Tigers to a Final Four appearance at the NCAA gymnastics championships in 2022.

The Auburn football game against Alabama, meanwhile, is probably one fans will want to forget. The Tigers led 10-0 going into the fourth quarter, but the Tide managed to find the endzone after a field goal in the dying embers of the game to bring it to overtime, where Alabama would end up defeating Auburn 24-22.

Suni Lee is expected to come back to the Plains for at least another year, and the Tigers will have an opportunity to avenge their loss from last year in Tuscaloosa this upcoming season.

Auburn gymnastics phenom Suni Lee expected to return

It’s looking like the Tigers will get their star all-around gymnast back.

It’s looking like the Tigers’ gymnastics team could retain its key piece.

Head coach [autotag]Jeff Graba[/autotag] told Auburn alumni on Thursday night that gold medal Olympian and Auburn all-around star [autotag]Sunisa Lee[/autotag] told him she intends to, at the moment, return to the Plains for her second season of college gymnastics according to a report by the Montgomery Advertiser.

Lee’s decision comes in part due to preparation for the 2024 Olympics and whether she wanted to commit to both elite gymnastics and collegiate gymnastics. According to Graba, Lee currently believes that she can do both at the moment.

“NCAA gymnastics has been good for her in a lot of ways,” Graba said before an Auburn alumni event. “But she’s going to have to balance it out. She’s going to have to make decisions in the future, but right now the decision is: ‘I think I can still do both.’ So I think that’s where we are.”

Lee’s return to Auburn would be big to Auburn gymnastics. The Tigers posted a 1-7 record in 2021 and missed out on NCAAs without Lee, but when she arrived at the Plains, she helped propel Auburn to a 22-8-1 record and an appearance in the NCAA gymnastics Final Four.

With senior Derrian Gobourne returning to the team as well, Graba has a squad that looks primed to return to the Final Four for the 2023 season. The 2023 gymnastics season should begin in the first week of January.

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