'A lot of fight': Takeaways and insights from Auburn's tough outing at Arkansas
Auburn bounced back from a couple of tough rotations to salvage a 196 in its first road meet. Here's a look at the highs and lows for the Tigers from their Sunday meet in Fayetteville.
It went wonky for Auburn pretty fast on Sunday night at Arkansas.
Some overcharged handstands had the Tigers clinging on for their dear meet lives in just the first rotation. Emma Grace Boyd almost went over the top, but with a tightened grip and clinching forearms, managed to swing back around. Then the same happened to Charlotte Booth, the true freshman managing to swing herself back around.
But meanwhile, the Razorbacks rolled up stick after stick on vault then bars to bring all the energy in Bud Walton Arena to their side. Arkansas ran away with it, and it took a couple rotations for Auburn to really recover on the way to a disappointing 196.075.
It’s a significant step back from Auburn’s season-opening score of 197.150 back in Neville Arena on Jan. 9.
Gymnastics 101
In NCAA gymnastics, a point’s difference is a massive difference. A difference of five tenths of a point (or more succinctly put: five tenths) would also be a significant margin. It’s a game of tenths, or half-tenths, not a game of full points.
Sophomore Sophia Bell was a show-stopper again, continuing to make her name not only as one of Auburn’s most electric gymnasts, but also most reliable. Bell won floor, outscoring every other competitor in the meet from both Auburn and Arkansas.
Auburn’s Alex Irvine tied Arkansas’ Allison Cucci for the top score of the meet on bars.
Auburn’s 2025 ace Keko Jong — who is working her way back to full speed from an Achilles injury — warmed up on bars and dressed for the meet, but ultimately was not named one of the team’s six starters and did not compete, though warming up marks a step forward toward her return.
Auburn team scores
Vault: 49.025
Bars: 48.750
Beam: 49.100
Floor: 49.200
Team total 196.075
Here are the takeaways from Auburn’s battle of a night in Bud Walton:
Irvine reliable in rough circumstances
Marissa Neal led Auburn off strongly enough on bars in the first rotation, getting a 9.800, but the rotation went up and down then ultimately sideways from there. Boyd overshot a handstand and ended up with a 9.600. Julianne Huff got Auburn back on track with another 9.800, but not without a long judges’ conference over her score. Booth had to wait through that meeting, had too much juice on one of her handstands as well, and finished with a 9.575.
Olivia Greaves then missed the bar with her right hand coming out of her Pak Salto, and was short on handstands, and scored a 9.650. Nothing in that 9.6 area is a score a team wants to count in SEC competition, but Auburn was only able to drop one of those scores.
Gymnastics 101
It’s called a cast handstand, or handstand for short, when a gymnast swings up to an upside down position on top of the bar, her feet pointed up toward the ceiling and her arms on the bar supporting her. The judges look for handstands that stall the gymnast at the top with perfect balance — and they deduct points for how off a gymnast is from complete, 90-degree verticality. Going for the perfect handstand is a risk-reward game: Coming up a bit short usually results in a small deduction; putting too much momentum into the swing, overshooting verticality and going over the other side of bar results in a much more costly deduction.
Enter Irvine, a junior who transferred in from UCLA last season and was a bars specialist for the Tigers last season. She was magnificent, despite what was going on around her, scoring a 9.900 on her routine. The routine itself was steller, with deductions coming in her squatty dismount: She had to bend her knees a fair bit to try to salvage a stuck landing.
Auburn on bars
Marissa Neal 9.800
Emma Grace Boyd 9.600
Julianne Huff 9.800
Charlotte Booth9.575Olivia Greaves 9.650
Alex Irvine 9.900
Team total 48.750
Irvine has expanded her game in 2026, though, and later came through with another big routine with a big score on beam.
Irvine scored another 9.900 on beam in the final rotation. She fought her way into the starting lineup on beam last week, scoring yet another 9.9 in the exhibition spot: Specialist no more.
Mia Leverton showing up returners
Besides Bell and Zancan, the rest of Auburn’s vault returners have seen a late-addition true freshman come into the lineup and kick them in the pants a bit.