The 17th-ranked University of Kentucky gymnastics team travels to No. 22 Auburn for its second Southeastern Conferencemeet of the season on Friday, Jan. 19. Action gets underway at Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum at 8 p.m. ET.
“It’s always tough to go on the road in the SEC,” Coach Leah Little said. “Hopefully, we can build on the performances we hadagainst LSU and come away with a win.”
The GymKats (0-1, 0-1 SEC) are coming off of a narrow, one-point loss to LSU last Friday. Junior Jennifer Simmons made herreturn from an ankle injury, which sidelined her most of last season, to place second in the all-around and lead the team against LSU.Not far behind in third was sophomore Julia Gore, the 2000 SEC Freshman of the Year, with a 38.400.
On the individual events, sophomore Mindy Smith won the balance beam competition, scoring a career-high 9.850 and finishingher 11th consecutive meet without counting a fall. Simmons and Gore finished first and third on the vault, while freshmen Julie Joy andAronda Primault added a second and fourth place to give UK the top four spots on the event. Smith also finished second on the floorexercise with a 9.775.
UK and Auburn have met on the mats 41 times, with Kentucky holding a 27-14 advantage. The two teams met twice in 2000.The GymKats defeated the Tigers in the second meet of the season, 193.425-192.875, in Lexington and then went on to takeanother victory over AU at the SEC Championships, 194.650-192.500, in Gainesville, Fla.
The meet is being taped by Fox Sports South to be broadcast on a delayed basis on Jan. 27, at 4 p.m. ET.
