Preparations for Regional Meet Winding Down - AuburnTigers.com - Auburn University Official Athletic Site

Preparations for Regional Meet Winding Down No. 18 Tigers host regional on Saturday

Toi Garcia

April 4, 2012

AUBURN – It has been nearly two weeks since No. 18 Auburn gymnastics competed at the 2012 SEC Championship and in the time since, the team has been doing its best to prepare for the NCAA Auburn Regional.

“We’ve been running through some mock setups,” Auburn head coach Jeff Graba said. “Now that we know our rotation, we’ve been starting on bars and trying to get the team used to the byes. That was one thing that got into them a little bit at SECs, just how long the waits can be. All in all, it’s been a pretty successful week. We’ve changed the lineup up a couple of times depending on who was looking good, so we feel like they are on their toes. All in all, we feel like we are moving in the right direction.”

The rigors of a long campaign resulted in some minor injuries for several Tigers in the final weeks of the regular season, but the week of rest between the SEC meet and this weekend’s regional has given the team a chance to rest up and get ready for the postseason.

“We are probably as healthy as we’ve been all year,” Graba said. “At the end of the regular season, we were dealing with some nagging injuries and some sickness. We feel like we’ve got that out of our system. Monday and Tuesday of this week is the healthiest we’ve been since January. We feel like we are in good shape.”

Auburn hosts Georgia, Oregon State, Michigan, West Virginia and Michigan State on Saturday at 6 p.m. for the right to advance to the NCAA Championship meet on April 21 in Duluth, Ga. Tickets for Saturday’s meet are available by calling 855-AUB-2010 or by visiting www.AUBTIX.com.

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