Alabama Gymnastics Falls Flat in Rivalry Meet at Auburn
AUBURN, Ala. — Heading into the Auburn meet, Alabama head coach Ashley Johnston said her team was facing a choice to close the gap from good to great. The Crimson Tide wasn’t quite able to bridge that gap Friday night.
As the road team, Alabama had the opportunity to start on the uneven bars, its best event. However, the Crimson Tide put up its worst bars score of the season and couldn’t overcome the slow start.
No. 14 Auburn beat No. 7 Alabama 197.725-197.050 in front of a soldout Neville Arena crowd. The Tigers scored a season high overall and a season highs on three of four events. Luisa Blanco's 9.925 on beam salvaged a 197 road score for the Crimson Tide.
"Overall, we just gave away too many things," Johnston said after the meet. "We always say we want to be so prepared we can walk into any arena know that it's ours to defend as long as we just do our job. And tonight, we just gave away too many things."
Bars has been Alabama's highest-scoring event this season, but it was the team's second-lowest total Friday night. Johnston said she didn't feel like the team was too ambitious or anxious, but just that the gymnasts were missing casts, handstands and landings.
Alabama trailed by .225 heading into the final rotation and struggled on the beam for the second week in a row. Rachel Rybicki fell off the beam in the second spot, scoring a 9.325, and Ella Burgess nearly fell off two routines later and scored a 9.625, effectively eliminating any change at a Crimson Tide comeback while Auburn was scoring 9.9 after 9.9 on floor.
After the rough start on bars, Alabama put up its best vault score of the season (49.450) highlighted by 9.95s from Blanco and Chloe LaCoursiere. It cut into the Tigers’ lead, but Auburn followed that up with a season-high 49.475 on beam.
The vaults from Blanco and LaCoursiere were highlights of the night for the Crimson Tide, and Johnston said they were awesome to see.
"Luisa and Chloe both stick their vaults all the time in practice," Johnston said. "Sometimes when you're trying to find that edge, you can go a little over sometimes, you're gonna be a little under sometimes. And then it does click. You find that breakthrough, and it was really neat to see those two break through tonight.
"That will be a huge confidence builder, and now we need to look to a few other athletes and look for that click."
Alabama will have a long layoff to recover from this loss with the next meet not until the quad meet in Denton, Texas on February 19.
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How it happened...
(latest updates at the top)
Final: Auburn 197.725, Alabama 197.050
Fourth rotation (Alabama balance beam 49.075, Auburn floor exercise 49.525)
Alabama beam lineup
1. Gabby Gladieux- Slight hop on her dismount, but an overall really strong routine from Gladieux in the leadoff spot- 9.85
2. Rachel Rybicki- Rybicki falls off the beam, and Alabama will want to drop this score, which puts a lot of pressure on the rest of the lineup. This is the first time she's competed on beam since the Arkansas meet. It's the second time she's fallen this season after not falling at all in her freshman campaign- 9.325
3. Mati Waligora- Major balance check on her connection series. Finishes the routine with a stuck dismount- 9.85
*Alabama's last three gymnasts are going to have to put up scores of 9.9+ to have any chance at coming away with a win. Even that might not be enough with how Auburn is scoring on floor.
4. Ella Burgess- Burgess nearly falls off the beam and has to grab her legs, which will be a major deduction. She sticks her dismount, but it won't be enough. Unless Auburn has multiple people fall on floor, the Tigers have almost assuredly won this meet- 9.625
*Auburn basically plays karaoke music that the crowd sings along too while the opponent is on beam.
5. Lilly Hudson- Slight balance check on her leap and small hop forward on her dismount- 9.825
6. Luisa Blanco- Good routine from Blanco to close out the rotation. She barely hangs on for the landing. She needs at least a 9.875 for Alabama to score a 197 overall- 9.925
Alabama beam total: 49.075
Score after Rotation 3: Auburn 148.200, 147.975
- Alabama trails by .225 heading into the final rotation. It wasn't a bad floor rotation for the Crimson Tide, but Alabama definitely left some tenths out on the floor with only one gymnast (Lilly Hudson) scoring above a 9.9
- Meanwhile, Auburn put up its highest beam score of the season led by a 9.975 by Cassie Stevens.
Third rotation (Alabama floor 49.350, Auburn balance beam 49.475)
Alabama floor lineup:
1. Mati Waligora- She wasn't fully in control of the landing on her first tumbling pass, but overall a solid routine to start the rotation- 9.875
2. Cam Machado- Really good routine from Machado. I didn't spot any major deductions- 9.825 (Guess I missed some deductions)
3. Ella Burgess- Solid routine from Burgess- 9.875
4. Lilly Hudson- There might be a deduction in her lea[s, but it was overall a strong routine from Hudson- 9.925
5. Gabby Gladieux- She lands with her chest down and has to take a step forward on her first tumbling pass while the crowd reacts to Auburn's Cassie Stevens scoring a 9.975. Alabama is going to want to drop this score more than likely. (Ideally, they would've wanted to drop Machado's score.)- 9.7
6. Luisa Blanco- She takes a big hop on her second tumbling pass. Not her cleanest floor routine ever, but should be a solid score- 9.85
Alabama floor total: 49.350
Score after Rotation 2: Auburn 98.725, Alabama 98.625
- Alabama does make up some ground in the second rotation with its best team vault score of the year.
Second rotation (Alabama vault 49.450, Auburn uneven bars 49.225)
Alabama vault lineup:
*Yurchenko full is a 9.95 start value. A Yurchenko 1.5 has a 10.0 start value.
1. Gabby Gladieux- She sticks the landing on her Yurchenko full- 9.875 (ties season high)
2. Chloe LaCoursiere- Sticks the landing on her Yurchenko 1.5. Should be a big score for Alabama- 9.95 (career high)
3. Lilly Hudson- Hudson has to take multiple steps back on her Yuchenko 1.5 and backs into the vault. Alabama will definitely want to drop this score, and it puts a lot of pressure on the rest of the vault lineup- 9.425
4. Luisa Blanco- She sticks her landing on the Yurchenko 1.5. It should be another good score for the Crimson Tide- 9.95 (ties season high)
5. Jamison Sears- Sears does the Yurchenko full and doesn't have as much success as a week ago. She isn't quite able to hold on for the stick- 9.8
6. Makarri Doggette- Slight hop on her Yurchenko full- 9.875
Alabama vault total: 49.450
Score after Rotation 1: Auburn 49.500, Alabama 49.175
- Season high for Auburn on vault (by a significant margin), and it was a season low for the Crimson Tide on the uneven bars.
- Scoring was very generous on vault, so we'll see if Alabama can take advantage of that. They need to make up ground after a rough start on bars.
First rotation (Alabama uneven bars 49.175, Auburn vault 49.500)
Alabama bars lineup:
1. Gabby Gladieux- Way over extended on her first handstand and almost fell off the bar. Not the cleanest routine, but she stuck the landing. This was Gladieux's first career bars routine- 9.75
2. Natalia Pawlak- She also overextended on her first handstand. She had to take a step back on her dismount. Looks like Alabama is having to shake off some nerves early in this rivalry meet- 9.775
3. Chloe LaCoursiere- Alabama's best bars routine so far, but she had a hop on her dismount. Overall, not the start so far that the Crimson Tide would be looking for on its best event- 9.825
4. Cam Machado- Finally a clean routine from Alabama. It should definitely be the Crimson Tide's highest score so far– straight handstands and a stuck dismount- 9.925
5. Makarri Doggette- She was a little short on both handstands and had to take a step back on her dismount. It's not going to be as high of a score as Alabama would've been looking for here- 9.825 (season low for Doggette)
6. Luisa Blanco- Pretty routine from Blanco, but she had to take a big step back on her dismount. Overall, not a clean bar rotation for the Crimson Tide- 9.825 (season low)
Alabama bars total: 49.175 (season low)
Pre-meet
- It appears that Shania Adams is not here with the team in Auburn tonight.
- Alabama's rotation tonight will be uneven bars, vault, floor exercise and beam.
- This meet is supposed to be soldout, but there are a lot of empty seats 20 minutes before scheduled start time. It's obviously a pretty late start time for a college gymnastics meet, even on a Friday.
Pre-meet notes
courtesy of Alabama Athletics
FRIDAY’S MEET
- Alabama is led by Ashley Johnston, in her second season as UA’s head coach, while Jeff Graba is in his 14th year at the helm of Tigers
- The two teams have competed against each other 28 times since 2007 with Alabama leading the rivalry 25-3
LAST TIME OUT
- The loss to then-No. 3 Kentucky comes after facing a total of six top-10 nationally ranked opponents through the first five weeks of the season
- With the highest score on vault by a UA gymnast, Jamison Sears recorded the first podium finish of her Crimson Tide campaign after securing a career-high mark of 9.900
- Cameron Machado (9.900) and Luisa Blanco (9.925) captured podium finishes on the floor exercises behind season-high scores
THE TIDE IN THE RANKINGS
- Alabama ranks fourth, nationally, on the uneven bars, with an average score of 49.460, while simultaneously posting top-seven rankings on all four events within the Southeastern Conference (No. 2 – UB; No. 5 – VT; No. 5 – BB; No. 7 – FX)
- Individually, Luisa Blanco holds top-10 national rankings on uneven bars (5th - 9.925), vault (6th - 9.905) and the all-around (39.563)
- Lilly Hudson ranks 15th, Blanco ranks 17th and Machado ranks No. 25 to put three Alabama gymnasts in the top-25 SEC floor exercise rankings
