Auburn - A Month Older and Wiser

Auburn has faced many challenges this season. At the start of the season was the loss of senior Sally Cantrell with a torn ACL. The young team, many of them freshmen, was forced to step up and replace her on each event. Then last weekend, sophomore Cheryl Lancaster, last week's SEC Gymnast of the Week and Auburn's top scorer on bars, was injured in warm ups. The team struggled on bars and beam. But returned in the third and fourth rotation to hit every one of their remaining routines.

Should Lancaster not be able to return, she will also be terribly missed on beam, as she was also their top scorer on that event. Freshman Erin Gettle has been steadily improving on the bars. On beam she has the ability to score 9.8 or better, so long as she stays on the beam. She has also shown improvement on the floor exercise since her first outing with Alabama.

Freshman Kristi Boyte has been strong and consistent on vault and floor as predicted. She is Auburn's top vaulter with a 9.85 high and 9.8 average this season. She has shown that she is capable of similar scores on floor. Her energetic music is suited to her strong tumbling skills.

Senior Missy Lauderdale has become very consistent on the floor this season. She scored the teams high last week on floor during a very difficult meet, showing the leadership qualities that the team needed.

Floor exercise is Auburn's best event. The music is crowd pleasing, and they have the moves to go with it. Their high scorer and most consistent on this event this season has been none other than freshman Terri Brannan from Northport.

The team is having difficulties with consistency on beam and bars. Freshman Emily Looney is all too familiar with this on beam, but has the ability to post high scores. Freshman Hannah Littrell is having a similar experience on bars, posting her highest score at her first meet against Alabama.

Missing from the all around competition has been former Bama Bounder freshman Addi Hundley. She competed all around in the first meet against Alabama, sat out from the lineup for a week, and has only competed bars since. Hopefully she is only "resting" a lower limb, in order to be healthy toward the end of the season.

The Tigers are young. But their greatest strength may be their ability to come back in the face of adversity. They will be asked to step up to the next level this weekend as they meet again with Alabama, who have also become a stronger team in many ways. Alabama vs. Auburn... a great meet for our new Birmingham fans to come out and see!

Auburn vs. Alabama
Friday, February 9, 2001
7:00 p.m.
Birmingham Jefferson Conference Center