Kentucky Gymnastics falls to Auburn in historic meet
Kentucky Gymnastics fell to No. 5 Auburn on Friday in what was a historic night for the Tigers.
Despite scoring their sixth team score above 197 this season, UK narrowly missed the victory 197.925-197.150. The Wildcats still showed out at Auburn though, with seven new individual career-highs and five new season-highs for various ‘Cats.
In their first rotation on bars, Kentucky had four scores of 9.9 or above, with Josie Angeny and Jillian Procasky both setting career highs on the event.
Kentucky also had a stellar performance on vault, with Arianna Patterson taking the highest vault score of the night with a 9.925. UK then shined on the floor, with Hailey Davis and Raena Worley both achieving high scores of 9.950, Davis’ highest of the year.
The ‘Cats finished up on beam, where Shealyn Luksik and Worley both scored a 9.950, season-highs for each. The 9.950 was also enough to make Luksik’s career-best.
However, Kentucky fell short of Auburn’s historic evening, with 197.925 being the highest score ever in program history. The Tigers, led by Olympic All-Around gold medalist Suni Lee, proved to be Kentucky’s greatest challenge yet on the season. Lee posted her second career 10 against the Wildcats, her first-ever on beam.
This makes Lee the only Auburn gymnast to ever score 10s on separate events. She also debuted a never-before-seen move on bars, the nabieva, making NCAA history.
At the end of the evening, Patterson took the vault title for Kentucky. Auburn’s Lee won her fifth straight All-Around title of the season, defeating UK Worley 39.775-39.700.
Kentucky Gymnastics’ next challenge will come in the form of No. 6 LSU in Baton Rouge on Friday, March 4th at 8:15 p.m. on the SEC Network. UK has already taken on four top 10 opponents this season but is just 1-3 in those matches so far.
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