AU GYMNASTICS: Tide streak barely continues

If you’re thinking basketball, baseball or football, it’d be like losing by half a point.

In volleyball, it’d be a 15-14 final or a 6-5 end to a round of tennis.

That was the margin that prevented the Auburn gymnastics teams from snapping a 95-meet losing streak to Alabama on Friday night at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.

Holding just a slim lead heading into the final round, Auburn performed as well as anticipated on its floor exercise, but Alabama — boasting three true freshmen — was nearly flawless in the beam. It was just enough to give the Tide a 195.675-195.650 victory.

“I felt we did great,” Auburn coach Jeff Thompson said. “It’s a shame that our fans don’t get to roll Toomer’s, though. They should be able to roll it in half-sheets.”

The 0.025 margin is the closest teams can go without tying in gymnastics. When a judge deducts points from a routine, it can only do so in 0.05 increments.

Needless to say, it was the closest result throughout the now 96-meet win streak Alabama holds over Auburn.

“If you ask the almost 7,000 people that were here, 3,500 of them will say that Auburn won and 3,500 will say that Alabama won,” Thompson said. “It’s just a perspective sport.”

The perspective part may or may not have come into play during the third round, when sophomore Rachel Inniss was deducted points on her beam routine after one of the judges did not recognize a “connection” she made, Thompson said.

Thompson submitted an inquiry and the ruling was overturned, but the final point value, 9.70, may or may not have been a true reflection of the routine, he said.

“That was the only questionable start value on the night for us all night. I felt we did great,” Thompson said. “It’s a shame that we couldn’t come out on the upside of the 25 thousandths, but oh well, you live to fight another day.”

Auburn’s performance was strong throughout the meet as it took an early lead after its first round on the vault. Senior Lindsey Puckett led the Tigers with a score of 9.90, her first of two on the day.

The lead went back to Alabama after the second round, with Auburn scoring a 48.875 on the uneven bars and Alabama coming back with a 49.050 on its run through the vault.

Led by a 9.85 score from A.J. Mills, the Tigers took a 0.025 margin into the final round with 48.675 round on the beam.

“We didn’t talk about winning or losing. We talked about doing your job,” Thompson said. “If you do a good job, you get good scores. If you get good scores, you have a chance to win. But in our sport, we could lose every meet this year and still go to the national championship.”

Despite routines of 9.90 from Mills and Puckett, Alabama was still able to flip the margin with its round on the beam. The Tide picked up three scores of 9.90 and two scores of 9.85 to overcome Auburn’s best efforts on the floor routine.

“I think we’re really strong on all the events, to be honest,” Puckett said. “We have a lot of confidence.”

Auburn and Alabama meet again Feb. 27 in Tuscaloosa.

“I think we got them nervous,” Thompson said. “Everybody knows how close this one was.”

| 737-2561

Read Andrew Gribble’s blog here.