Missouri at Auburn

Recap

The Big Storyline: Auburn continued to break records, scoring a program best 49.625 on beam en route to a definitive victory over Missouri. Shannon Welker’s Tigers looked uncharacteristically nervy and posted their first sub-49 event total of the season on vault. Both teams relied heavily on their star freshmen duos—Auburn’s Sunisa Lee and Sophia Groth, Missouri’s Amari Celestine and Jocelyn Moore—and they delivered yet again, contributing a collective eight scores of 9.900 or higher.    

Implications: Auburn has cemented itself as one of the top teams in the SEC and a legitimate postseason threat, holding strong at No. 7 nationally. Obviously, this wasn’t the away meet score Missouri was hoping for, but it was by no means a disastrous meet (Note: The Tigers hadn’t even broken 196 at this point in the 2021 season).

Preview

Current Rankings: No. 9 Missouri at No. 7 Auburn

Why You Should Make Time to Tune in:  It’s the meet of the Tigers (again, but with a different second Tiger), and both Tigers are fighting their way to having a record breaking program finish. Missouri has a strong freshman class led by Amari Celestine and Jocelyn Moore who have added strong tumbling and difficult vaults to a top beam team. Auburn has exceeded all expectations and currently sits at No. 3 in the SEC with big performances from Sunisa Lee, SOphia Groth and Derrian Gobourne.

Need More Proof? The meet will be a tight one and has high stakes for SEC championship seeding. Missouri, Auburn and Alabama are in a tight race for the night session. Auburn’s Sunisa Lee is currently tied for No. 1 in the all-around with Olympic teammate and Oregon State freshman Jade Carey. Tens were flying last week, and this meet could see even more.