Jeff Graba has known all along that his 2022 Tigers were capable of going all the way.
“We’re really excited about finally accomplishing what they set out to accomplish months and months ago,” he said on Thursday evening after Auburn upset reigning champion Michigan to advance to the national final out of semifinal two alongside Florida.
Graba felt confident that the semifinal would go well just two beam routines into the meet, and for good reason. The Tigers’ 49.475 was good enough for second, behind Michigan and ahead of Florida, after the first rotation.
“I had a sense of calmness since the beginning. Even watching beam, I was just calm as can be,” said Derrian Gobourne, who competes the other three events.
Florida had a more tense start on vault, where some off landings saw the Gators sitting in third. Bars started off rocky, too, with a fall in the leadoff routine, but then things got back on track after a good set from Riley McCusker.
About halfway through the rotation after a small delay, a judge raised a red flag instead of the usual green that signals the next gymnast up should salute and begin her routine. Trinity Thomas thought it was a mistake.
“I was like, I don’t think that’s supposed to be red,” Thomas said while mimicking saluting to a judge with a confused expression. The flag was no mistake, though. There had been an equipment malfunction with the weights that anchor the bar cables under the podium.
Gator manager Shea Wheeler noticed the issue during Megan Skaggs’ routine. Eventually, Thomas recognized she wouldn’t be saluting any time soon. Teammates brought her a pair of sweats to stay warm, and turned their focus to keeping her loose. The issue took so long to fix that the rest of the events had already wrapped up.
A judge told Thomas that if the issue took more than 10 minutes, she and the gymnasts after her—Leanne Wong and Kentucky’s Raena Worley—would get a touch to warm back up before competing.
“I was like 10 minutes, oh my GOD,” Thomas said.
The fix did eclipse that time frame, and Thomas, Wong and Worley performed their touch while the final routines on other events were finishing up. The pause clearly did not phase Thomas, who performed an excellent routine for a 9.975 for what would be her first-ever individual national event title.
Meanwhile on floor, Auburn had a rough start of its own when Drew Watson stepped out of bounds. Gobourne recognized that the rest of the lineup needed to have Watson’s back, herself included.
“In my warmup I went out of bounds every turn on my double pike, so I was like, I can’t let that happen,” she said. She stayed in and put up one of the best routines of the day for a 9.9625. the whole lineup stepped up, securing a 49.575 on the event and moving into first ahead of Michigan.
Watson turned her night around, hitting her Yurchenko one and a half for a 9.925 in the third rotation.
“It was great to see her come back on vault,” Sunisa Lee said. Lee credits the team’s ability to build off each other throughout rotations for coming back on floor and staying strong through the vault rotation.
After three rotations, the Tigers maintained the lead. Florida moved into second after a strong beam rotation, and Michigan took itself out of the equation after counting a fall on bars, falling into fourth behind Missouri.
The Gators ran away with the meet on the final event, not counting a score below 9.925. Thomas went up in the fifth spot and scored the only perfect 10 of the semifinal round, securing her second individual event win and locking down the all-around title.
With the Gators comfortably ahead, Rowland slotted Payton Richards into the anchor spot, opting to pull Sloane Blakely. “Richards had a really good solid warmup, and it was a great opportunity to do a switcheroo,” she said.
For Thomas, the all-around win wasn’t obvious right away.
“I had no idea actually,” she said. “If anybody was going to know [the result], Sav [Schoenherr] was going to know because she likes to calculate it in her head. And she was like, I think you won.”
The meet concluded with the Gators edging out Auburn by just over a tenth of a point and both advancing to the team final over Missouri and Michigan.
“When we broke the streak with Alabama, everybody said what’s that mean?” Graba said of the Tigers’ first win in years over their in-state rivals earlier in the season. “[Qualifying to the final four] means the same thing. They get to quit talking about our inexperience.”
Article by Emily Minehart
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