Meet the five Auburn gymnastics freshmen set to make their debut Friday
Here’s a detailed look at each of Auburn gymnastics’ debuting freshmen and what to expect from them — both in Friday's season opener, and down the line.
Head coach Jeff Graba has said earlier this preseason that his freshman group for Auburn gymnastics, combined with the few incoming transfers, could go out and field a pretty solid team made up of entirely of the Auburn newcomers alone.
That’s pretty high praise — though, in reality, he’d rather not throw everything at all of them all at once, for the sake of their own development.
Below is a look at every new freshman on the team and an idea of where fans might see them when Auburn opens its season at 7 p.m. CT Friday against NC State in Neville Arena — or in the next few meets down the line.
“To me, this is a lot of fun, because you get to invent your team in January,” Graba said. There are plenty of new opportunities available after some longtime starters departed in the offseason like Sophia Groth, Olivia Hollingsworth and Gabby McLaughlin. Those three alone started in eight of the 24 total lineup spots for Auburn in its season opener last year — meaning 33% of the starting spots opened up with the graduation of those three alone.
Graba cautions he wants to see experienced returners step up to the plate in a lot of places: “Really, trying not to overload the freshman, trying to give them opportunities to compete but also challenging the upperclassmen to expand their domain a little bit,” he said. Still here’s where those freshmen stand to start the season:
Charlotte Booth
Hometown: Clermont, Fla.
CGN rating: 5 stars
CGF rating: 3.5 stars*
Look for her on: Bars and beam, possibly floor for now — all-around eventually
Booth has a wealth of elite experience under her belt and she should plug in as an early season starter on at least one event. She represented Team Great Britain as an alternate on its Olympic team and won medals for Team GB on international assignment.
The college game is different from the international game, though, with a different scoring system, and Graba pointed out that it even took Suni Lee a few meets to figure out how the college game is played.
Booth’s international career ended last February with an Achilles injury at the Cottbus World Cup in Germany. Graba says she’s back to full speed physically, but isn’t up to full speed as far as practice reps go, to start the season. Still, she’s the prize jewel of the recruiting class and one to watch early.
Booth said: “I feel like I’ve built back pretty fast and good, and I was just lucky to have the girls to support me and such great trainers and coaches and staff and they’ve all been with me along the way, just helping me get back to my strongest and my best ability.”
She added: “Definitely coming to college has been different than elite, for sure. But just, get comfortable competing, just have fun with the team and experience something new, is something that I’m really looking forward to — and just building on my execution.”
*It appears by the look of the CGF rankings explainer that Booth competing in elite for Team Great Britain, rather than in the U.S. national circuit, eliminated some more recent scores for her in their calculation and tanked her rating
Brynn Torry
Hometown: Yorktown, Va.
CGN rating: 4 stars
CGF rating: 4.5 stars