| AUBURN TIGERS |
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| Seniors | ||
| Katie Becker |
VT UB BB FX |
|
| Gracie Day |
VT UB FX |
|
| Kendal Moss |
UB |
|
| Skyler Sheppard |
BB FX |
|
| Emma Slappey (redshirt) |
BB FX |
|
| Juniors | ||
| Jada Glenn |
VT |
|
| Allie Riddle |
BB |
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| Ashley Smith |
FX |
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| Meredith Sylvia |
BB |
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| Drew Watson |
VT UB BB FX |
|
| Sophomores | ||
| Sabrina Cheney |
|
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| Derrian Gobourne |
VT UB BB FX |
|
| Freshmen | ||
| Aria Brusch |
VT UB BB FX |
|
| Molly Frack (redshirt) |
UB BB FX |
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| Morgan Leigh Oldham |
|
|
| Elise Panzner |
VT |
|
| Adeline Sabados |
UB BB |
|
| Piper Smith |
VT UB |
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| Cassie Stevens | VT UB BB FX |
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| Anna Sumner |
|
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| Sydney Wrighte (redshirt) |
|
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FINAL SEASON RANKING
2019 – 16th
2018 – 14th
2017 – 15th
2016 – 11th
2015 – 6th
2014 – 20th
2013 – 13th
2012 – 15th
2011 – 19th
2010 – 19th
THE 2019 STORY
Auburn spent the entirely of its 2019 season in the 11-13 ranking zone and will therefore feel that a final placement of 16th—largely informed by an unforeseen bars disaster in the regional final—understates the team’s quality. Which is probably true. It’s Auburn’s weakest finish of the last five years but not its weakest team.
DEPARTED 2019 ROUTINES
Abby Milliet – UB, BB, FX
Taylor Krippner – VT, UB, BB
Sam Cerio – UB, FX
A’Miracal Phillips – VT
Auburn has lost about 8 of 24 routines from its 2019 ideal lineup (not the very final lineup, though, because Cerio was injured by that point), which is not small but not totally unusual or unmanageable for a replacement mission.
INCOMING GYMNASTS
As seems to always be the case, Auburn has a big new class and a bunch of unfamiliar faces—seven freshmen along with a number of last year’s freshmen who didn’t end up competing, some of whom have redshirted. The team should be able to find the necessary replacement routines in this group, and make particular note of all-around contenders Aria Brusch and Cassie Stevens, the freshmen you should counting on seeing the most.
2020 PROJECTION
Auburn is looking at enough lineup turnover that we should expect to see a different team in 2020, at least one with different strengths and weaknesses. Abby Milliet won’t be around to save the day on bars and beam, but we can also look to some increased potential on the leg events that Auburn will hope balances out the losses to produce another season in the “could they be nationals spoilers?” contention zone.
VAULT
2019 Event Ranking: 12
| Lineup locks: Gracie Day, Drew Watson, Derrian Gobourne |
| Lineup options: Cassie Stevens, Aria Brusch, Jada Glenn, Elise Panzner, Piper Smith, Katie Becker |
Auburn showed competitive difficulty in its vault lineup in 2019, and while the team loses two final-lineup vaults from that team, those two were not the biggest scores the team had to offer. With the meatiest portion of the lineup returning, Auburn should be pretty optimistic about its chances to improve its vault scoring a little in 2020.
The big vaulters from last season—Day, Watson, and Gobourne—will all bring their Y1.5s back to the most honored positions in the lineup, and they should be joined by freshman Cassie Stevens, who has a 1.5 of her own that scored very well in JO. Aria Brusch has always shown huge amplitude on her full, so I’d expect to see her break into the lineup, and Auburn will be working to try to get a 1.5 from Elise Panzner into the group as well. That’s already six, which brings us to the Jada Glenn conundrum.
Glenn has a Y1.5 that has made her a mainstay in the lineup in her first two seasons, but the landing control has never really been there enough to make score-sense compared to a clean Yfull. Auburn may continue to give it a go with her vault, because about twice a season she’ll pop out the window with something like a 9.9, but may also decide to give Panzner a shot instead to see if her 1.5 is more reliable—or opt for a safer full from Piper Smith or Katie Becker.
BARS
2019 Event Ranking: 8
| Lineup locks: Gracie Day, Drew Watson, Derrian Gobourne |
| Lineup options: Aria Brusch, Cassie Stevens, Adeline Sabados, Piper Smith, Katie Becker, Kendal Moss |
Auburn is dealing with its largest losses on bars, a lineup that achieved some truly massive scores here and there in 2019 but did so with critical contributions from Milliet, Cerio, and Krippner, who are no longer with the team. There’s work to do to return this lineup to the level that expected 49.3s and occasionally got 49.5+ last season.
The core group of three is the same as on vault, with Day, Watson, and Gobourne presenting essential routines that you can count on returning. I’d expect Brusch to get into the lineup as well. Once returning to JO, she notched her highest scores on bars, and we’ve seen a lot of her DLO dismount in training footage. Beyond that, we may see some experimentation. In terms of returners, this is my preferred event for Becker, who can always go anywhere as needed, and Kendal Moss had an excellent routine earlier in her NCAA career but barely competed last season.
Bars is also the most prolific event for the freshman class, with not just Stevens and Brusch as options but also someone like Adeline Sabados or Piper Smith, who both got some really strong JO scores on this piece. Because there’s some uncertainty about who fills out the lineup, I’d be tentative about bars expectations for now, but the number and potential of the options is high enough to think Auburn can mold together another strong group depending on how they play out in real life.
BEAM
2019 Event Ranking: 21
| Lineup locks: Meredith Sylvia, Drew Watson, Skyler Sheppard |
| Lineup options: Allie Riddle, Derrian Gobourne, Emma Slappey, Cassie Stevens, Aria Brusch, Katie Becker, Adeline Sabados, Gracie Day, Molly Frack |
Auburn has lost only one beam routine from last year’s lineup, but it’s Abby Milliet’s, so it basically counts as three routines. On top of that, Auburn was most likely to get stuck in the 49.0s on beam last season as its weakest event score, so the team is looking not just to reconstruct last year’s group but to improve upon it.
It’s not clear that there are a bunch of new options for this lineup. Brusch and Stevens will both provide possibilities, but beam was never the strongest score for either, so the team may be leaning on improvements from upperclasswomen to build up those scores.
In that regard, when Emma Slappey returned last season we saw her on only floor, but she recorded some strong beam numbers in previous seasons. Meanwhile, Gracie Day competed beam at last weekend’s intrasquad when she had previously been a three-eventer, so Auburn may be looking at that kind of inside hire to join some obvious lineup locks like Sylvia, Watson, and Sheppard, whom we know can get 9.8s. Something new needs to happen to get the team out of that #21 hole.
In terms of the remaining lineup, Riddle has always been strong for 9.800s and can return, and I anticipate we’ll see Gobourne doing a lot of AAing again in 2020 even though beam is typically a nerve-racking endeavor that can get 9.7y. If we don’t see her on one of the events this season, it’ll be this one.
FLOOR
2019 Event Ranking: 20
| Lineup locks: Derrian Gobourne, Drew Watson, Aria Brusch |
| Lineup options: Gracie Day, Skyler Sheppard, Cassie Stevens, Emma Slappey, Ashley Smith, Katie Becker, |
Despite losing its 5th- and 6th-position gymnasts from last season, Auburn’s floor lineup looks in good shape. Brusch is definitely going to come in here as a late-lineup option with her gigantic full-in, and Stevens had a piked full-in during JO, which I’d imagine moves her up toward the front of the line. As important as their introductions, though, would be the return of Day to the floor lineup. Day wasn’t in the final floor lineup in 2019 because of hitting problems, but she has obvious 9.9 ability and pedigree and needs to be there in her senior season for Auburn to reach its true potential.
Throw those three into the mix, and Auburn should feel comfortable with its possibilities for improvement in 2020. Gobourne is the star anchor—even though she wasn’t the anchor last season, she was the “anchor”—and will get 9.9s again, and Watson will provide a necessary early-mid score that can occasionally get into the higher 9.8s. If that all works out, Auburn would have Sheppard and Slappey, both of whom made the lineup last season and can go solidly 9.850, competing for the final spot in a tougher, upgraded squad compared to last season.