After a season of uncomfortable results, here’s why Auburn gymnastics is comfortable again going into the NCAA Regional semifinals
Here's how an underdog role, a road swing scheduled back in the preseason, and experiences through an up-and-down season have Auburn confident despite not being favored this Thursday.
Auburn hasn’t fired on all cylinders all season. Head coach Jeff Graba will be the first to say it.
It hasn’t been an easy year, by any stretch: Rising star Sophia Bell went down early in the year, and established star Keko Jong was hampered all season before going down again herself. But there have been difficulties, too, for the gymnasts who’ve managed to stay in, as it’s been a story of steps forward and steps backwards. Auburn has scored high on each apparatus at different points this season — but never all at once. It’s been a season of unrealized potential.
So Auburn enters the postseason staring at uncomfortable results but thinking glass-half-full: Auburn isn’t one of the teams entering this NCAA postseason that’s performed at its best and its scores still not been good enough to make the national meet. Instead, there’s potential still out there on the competition floor, and the Tigers have a chance at NCAA regionals to go get it.
“I’ve been through a year where we’re ranked 17th in the country and we haven’t hit,” Graba said, as his team prepared to travel to Baton Rouge for Thursday’s NCAA Regional semifinal at LSU. “You can take that either way: You can take that as we haven’t hit, or you can take that as, if we do hit, everybody should be nervous. It’s on us to hit.”
Yes, fortunately for the Tigers, they get a chance this week to re-write the legacy of the 2026 team: It’ll finish as the squad that never put it all together, or as the squad that finally put it all together in the postseason.
“I think we have best opportunity presented at us, and ... this is a fresh start for us and that’s what we’re treating it as,” Auburn junior Olivia Greaves said. “We’re just real excited to get out there.”
Auburn competes at 7 p.m. Thursday in the regional’s evening semifinal. The two teams with the best two scores in the quad meet advance to the regional final at 5 p.m. Saturday. The top two teams to come out of that regional final advance to the national championship meet
College Gym News simulated the postseason using all the scores from this season as data, and in 10,000 simulations, Auburn only advanced to the regional final in 23.72% of them. The simulator gives Auburn less than a 1% chance to make the national meet.
“We need to put the pressure on other people. There is no pressure on us,” Graba said. “We’re not supposed to qualify on. The math states, if you filled out your NCAA basketball bracket, we’re the upset that everybody’s rooting for but hardly ever happens.”
But the math is based on meets from earlier this season, and Auburn’s convinced it’s better than how it’s performed all season.
Plus, as Greaves said, the Tigers have reason to believe they’re in the best position possible going to Baton Rouge.
Here’s why, plus a look at the matchup and who’s in the way of advancing, how Auburn is eyeing its start on beam, and more: