How Suni Lee of Auburn gymnastics got 9.975 on new floor routine she'd never practiced
AUBURN — Auburn gymnastics coach Jeff Graba knows sometimes it's best to just trust his athletes.
That was the case this week as Suni Lee was preparing to debut a new floor routine in Auburn's first home meet of the season. The Tigers topped Arkansas on Friday, 197.5-196.675, and Lee's 9.975 on floor was tied with her mark on bars for the highest score of the event.
Graba initially pitched for Lee to break out the new performance against Alabama in Tuscaloosa on Feb. 3, but that was quickly shot down.
"I was like, 'Well, no, because I want to do it this week when we do our home meet,'" Lee said. "I wanted to debut it at a home meet because I knew the crowd was going to be amazing."
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The issue, however, was that the new routine wasn't yet finished. And the competition against the Razorbacks was in just three days. Graba had been cutting music, but Lee and Gabby McLaughlin kept asking for something different. McLaughlin helped Lee choreograph the routine, something Graba praised her for, calling the junior Auburn's "secret weapon."
While cutting the music took time, Graba didn't mind. He's aware of the talent Lee has.
"Suni is pretty special: you have to put something out there that can hold water, and this one does," Graba said. "I finally cut this music. It was Tuesday night and I sent it to them, and I went to sleep because Gabby put the heart, she loved it on the text. I was like good, then I can go to sleep, you guys get to work."
Lee revealed after the meet that she hadn't even been able to practice the full routine with music in the leadup to Friday. Her performance that scored a 9.975 was the first time she did it with everything included.
"I didn't even do a full routine with it," she said.
The Tigers collectively scored a 49.55 on floor in the last rotation, their best showing in that category through the first three meets of the season. Derrian Gobourne received a 9.95 for her performance, which was second only to Lee.
"I feel like we definitely still have a lot to work on, but towards the end we definitely put it together and floor was probably one of the best rotations we've had in a while," Lee said.
The other 9.975 Lee registered came on bars. The Jungle was pleading with the judges to grant Lee a perfect score after she stuck the landing off the bars, but one judge gave the sophomore a 9.95 while the other gave her a 10.
And although the fans let that one judge hear it, Lee conceded she wasn't perfect.
"I was a little bit off on the first skill, so it kind of messed me up for the rest of the routine," she said. "But I ended up sticking my dismount, which was honestly a really great feeling because I haven't been able to stick it for some reason."
The fans may not have left Neville Arena with everything they were looking for, as that perfect 10 would've sent a shockwave through the venue, but they had the opportunity to see an Olympic gold medalist perform a new floor routine for the first time − literally.
All things considered, not too bad of a consolation prize.
"Me and Gabby worked on my floor routine literally two days ago," Lee said. "It took two hours, we were in the gym for two hours just trying to put it together."
Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on Twitter @rich_silva18.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn gymnastics: Suni Lee new floor routine got 9.975 with no practice
