Lineup changes 'probable' for Auburn after more variables eliminated at the Metroplex Challenge
Auburn's beam team stayed red hot, recording a season-high score, but the bars group could be due for a shakeup after struggling as an early rotation and now as a late rotation.
The bars squad had its chance.
With Auburn locked into a tight meet going into the fourth and final rotation, and with bars the only apparatus left for Auburn, the much-maligned bars lineup had a chance to win the meet for the Tigers, and reset all the momentum on the event.
Alas: Instead, it was more of the same.
Auburn struggled again on bars, losing two and a half tenths from its meet Friday at LSU, and Auburn ultimately finished third Sunday night at the Metroplex Challenge in Fort Worth.
North Carolina won with a 196.375, with NC State coming in second with a 196.100 ahead of Auburn’s 196.075. Boise State finished with a 194.825.
Bars has plagued Auburn all season. Sunday’s meet eliminated more variables for Auburn as it tries to get to the bottom of what’s wrong: The meet was neither at home in Neville Arena nor on the road in a hostile environment. The bars rotation, also, was last, when the Tigers were plenty warmed up as opposed to being an early rotation and being chalked up to a sluggish start.
“We need to start looking at some probable lineup changes in the future,” Auburn head coach Jeff Graba said outright, in a team release from Fort Worth.
The result will offer Auburn more information to work with as it tries to put together a solution in time for the postseason — but more immediately, it’s just more for the Tigers to chew on as they travel back to the Plains from Texas.
Here’s a rewind for how Auburn performed throughout the meet: