The No. 17 Auburn Gymnastics squad opened the season by scoring 196.600 in its first competition of the season.
Auburn traveled to Las Vegas to compete in the Mean Girls Super 16 Championships on Saturday to take part in a quad match with No. 5 UCLA, No. 7 California, and No. 8 Alabama. The Tigers finished third in the meet, defeating UCLA (196.550) and finished behind Alabama (197.125) and California (196.850).
“Overall, I feel like we just had a really good night,” head coach Jeff Graba said following the meet. “I’m really happy with the fight that this team showed. We have a lot of new people in new positions, but I really felt like they stayed focused throughout all four events. I think that is going to bode well for the future.”
[autotag]Sara Hubbard[/autotag] carried the Tigers on vault by scoring a 9.875. [autotag]Sydney Schumaker[/autotag], [autotag]Julianne Huff[/autotag], and [autotag]Olivia Hollingsworth[/autotag] also scored a 9.8 in the event. On bars, three Tigers reached a 9.9 or better with [autotag]Cassie Stevens[/autotag] earning a 9.925.
Hollingsworth and [autotag]Gabby McLaughlin[/autotag] each scored a 9.850 on beam. Hollingsworth also joined Stevens by scoring a 9.9 on floor to close the meet.
Hollingsworth ended the event with the fourth-highest all-around score with a 39.450. She is expected to be one of the heavy hitters this season following the departures of [autotag]Suni Lee[/autotag] and [autotag]Derrian Gobourne[/autotag]. She has trained hard this offseason, and her work paid off in Las Vegas.
“I’ve just been working hard and so I decided just to trust my training this year,” Hollingsworth said Saturday. “I know that I can score well and do my routines really well, so I just trusted myself tonight and it paid off.”
The Tigers open the home slate next Friday against No. 9 Kentucky. The meet begins at 7:30 p.m. CT inside Neville Arena, and will be broadcasted by SEC Network.
Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on X (Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Taylor on Twitter @TaylorJones__