Auburn gymnastics is back: Takeaways and insights from the Tigers' eventful win over NC State
Unpacking a meet full of firsts and identifying who stepped up Friday night as a new-look Tigers team roared into a new season.
On a taped-up leg, with wrapping all around her left thigh, Paige Zancan raced her way down the vault runway.
She still found the power in her legs for her front pike. And she found the strength under those bandages to stick it. Undeniable. Zancan earned a 9.975, matching her career best score and getting a perfect 10 from one of the two judges — one highlight of the Auburn gymnastics team’s triumphant return on Friday night: a resilient, in some ways emotional, season-opening win over NC State in Neville Arena.
“This is the most ‘gymnastics’ thing I’ve ever seen,” joked a commenter on Instagram, thinking of how gymnasts often fight through injury in the brutal sport, and looking at the wrapping on Zancan’s leg, which covered most of her thigh, and almost looked like a cast covering an injury that’d surely keep her from competing. In actuality, Auburn head coach Jeff Graba said after the meet that it’s a tweak she’s working through on her inner thigh, which flares up when she spreads her leg outward. Her vault has an uncommon front handspring entry and is a front pike — sending all her motion front to back, instead of side to side, which allows her to still go for it.
Well, that, and a heap of toughness and resilience. “That’s who she is, man,” Graba said of Zancan. “She’s a mental giant. She goes after things. This is what she brings to table, is just that exclamation point.”
The meet actually started with two of those exclamation points, one being Zancan’s huge score and the other being Sophia Bell’s school-history-making double Yurchenko full in the first rotation — on a night that later ended with Bell throwing up another huge score at floor anchor. That floor score shut the door on Auburn’s win with a 197.150 to NC State’s 196.075.
Bell got a 9.925 on vault then a 9.950 later on floor. She jumped for joy with her teammates after finishing floor, first because she had just gotten the best score of her career on floor, and then when she realized the Tigers had cracked a 197. Bell, a sophomore with infectious enthusiasm and insane athleticism, is also a sharp observer: Many NCAA teams opened their seasons last week, and none of them got a 197 — even UCLA and Jordan Chiles.
“After we had done a little bit of calculations, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re the first team to get a 197 this season,’” she smiled wide after the meet. “That’s huge. And also to just start off with a 197 is insane.”
Yes, it’s quite the base to build off of, and it was quite an eventful meet for a non-conference tune-up. Here’s more unpacked from the busy start of a new season in Neville Arena:
Auburn team scores
Vault: 49.475
Bars: 49.000
Beam: 49.175
Floor: 49.500
Team total: 197.150
Zancan and Bell close a vault rotation of firsts
Zancan’s incredible vault anchored the first rotation, which started sluggish but heated up down the lineup and finished red hot. Moments before Zancan’s 9.975 in the No. 6 spot, Sophia Bell scored a 9.925 on her debuting Yurchenko double full in the No. 5 spot.
Bell’s vault marked the first time an Auburn gymnast had ever competed that rare vault in an NCAA meet, and she stuck it.
Also on vault: True freshman Mia Leverton, a late addition to the Tigers’ incoming class, made her collegiate debut with 9.850 on her Yurchenko 1.5.