University of Missouri
#13 Auburn
No. 7 Gymnastics Hosts No. 13 Auburn for Senior Day
3/8/2025 3:27:00 PM | Gymnastics
Mizzou competes in its final home meet of the season seeking its fourth conference win this year.
COLUMBIA, Mo. — No. 7 University of Missouri gymnastics will compete in its final home meet of the season on Sunday at noon against No. 13 Auburn at Hearnes Center for Senior Day.
The meet will be featured on SEC Network+. John Roethlisberger be calling play-by-play, while Samantha Peszekwill will serve as the analyst.
THE MATCHUP
-Mizzou competes against No. 13 Auburn at its final home meet of the season on Senior Day.
-No. 13 Auburn is coming off a loss at home to No. 1 Oklahoma, 197.925-196.900.
MU ranks higher than AU in team NQS on floor and bars, while the visiting Tigers hold the advantage on vault and beam.
-Auburn's three conference wins have come at home against No. 17 Arkansas (196.700-196.250), No. 11 Georgia (197.300-197.200) and at No. 17 Alabama (197.750-197.350).
Missouri has seven individuals ranked in the top 25 of NQS in their respective events compared to three from Auburn.
-Mizzou last faced Auburn back in 2024 at Neville Arena, where Auburn scored 197.425. The Black & Gold is seeking its 13th win in series history against its forthcoming opponent.
HISTORIC SEASON FOR THE TIGERS
-Missouri gymnastics could arguably be in the midst of its best season in program history, breaking multiple records through nine meets.
-The Tigers' current national qualifying score (NQS) ranking of seven is its highest in the regular season. Heading into the year, the team's previous best was No. 9 during week seven of the 2022 campaign.
-Mizzou also holds its best NQS ranking on floor in program history, tying for third. This tops its previous record of No. 7 in week seven in 2024.
-Helen Hu earned her first score of 10 while on balance beam at Oklahoma on Jan. 17, marking the first routine to achieve perfection in the 2025 season.
-Kennedy Griffin also earned a 10 during the Zou to the Lou meet on Feb. 14 on floor, making it the third season in program history to see two perfect scores in the same year.
-Between Griffin and Hu, the two combine for five Southeastern Conference Specialist of the Week awards, making it the third time in conference history that one school has earned five such honors in the same season.
-Hu has been named Specialist of the Week four times thus far, just the second time in SEC history that a single gymnast reached the mark in one season.
-Hu is currently ranked tied for second in beam NQS, which is the second-highest a Mizzou gymnast has ever been ranked in an event.
-For the fourth time in last the five years, Mizzou owns two top-15 dual meet wins in a season, topping No. 6 Kentucky and No. 15 Alabama, respectively.
-Mizzou recorded its second-best team score in program history in last week's loss to Florida, posting 197.725 with 11 individual scores of at least 9.900.
THE CELESTANDARD
-In her final season of competition, Amari Celestine has continued to impress in each meet of the year. She set a new personal-best all-around score of 39.625 at Zou to the Lou on Feb. 14, which ties the seventh best in program history.
-In the all-around, Celestine holds the 14th-highest score nationally at 39.625, 20th in scoring average at 39.312 and ranks 36th in NQS in the all-around at 39.250.
-On Feb. 28 against No. 6 Florida, Celestine earned a 9.900 on bars, marking the seventh time in nine meets this season she's reached or exceeded the score.
-With her result against Georgia on bars, Celestine became the only Tiger since 1999 to record five-straight scores of at least 9.900 in the event. She is now up to six-straight meets of doing so after a 9.900 in the team's last outing in Gainesville. Only two gymnasts have done so four times in a row - Mara Titarsolej in 2024 and Jodie Heinicka in 2006.
-Celestine led the Tigers on bars with a career-high score of 9.950, which ties for the highest score for Missouri on bars this season, earning a share of the event title at Zou to the Lou.
-Against No. 6 Kentucky, the senior posted a 9.900 on bars and a 9.925 on floor, earning the event title in both events to help lead the team to its first conference win of the year.
-During the team's season opener, Celestine competed all-around for the first time, taking the event title with a score of 39.350. She holds seven event titles in 2025.
GRIFFIN ETCHES NAME IN RECORD BOOKS
-Griffin's performance at Zou to the Lou is the second 10.000 on floor a Mizzou gymnast has received, joining teammate Moore who achieved the feat at the Illinois Quad on March 17, 2024. She is the sixth Tiger to score a 10, five of which have come since 2023.
-Mizzou is one of three schools to achieve the top mark in multiple events this season.
-Griffin became the second-youngest individual to achieve the score both this year and in program history.
-Griffin's NQS of 9.905 now ranks 24th nationally in the event.
-Griffin's SEC Specialist of the Week honors, which she earned on Feb. 18, marks her second weekly conference award. She also won Freshman of the Week on Jan. 30, 2024, following her previous career-best of 9.975 in the team's win over No. 3 LSU.
-Missouri has won the SEC Specialist of the Week honors five times in 2025. Mizzou is one of three schools in the conference to ever have a Specialist of the Week five times in the same season.
-Five of the eight times Mizzou has earned a perfect routine have come in road or neutral-site meets. Five of the seven 10s in Mizzou gymnastics history have come since 2023.
-Griffin sealed the Tigers' victory against No. 12 Georgia with a 9.925 on floor after the teams were tied heading into the final routine of the fourth rotation of the meet.
-On Feb. 28 against No. 6 Florida, Griffin earned a 9.925 for her floor routine along with Hannah Horton, pushing Mizzou to its second-best result on the apparatus this season.
HU DID THAT? SHE DID
-Hu was named SEC Specialist of the Week for the fourth time this season on Tuesday, March 4, becoming just the third individual in conference history to earn the honor four times in a season.
-The redshirt senior is one of two gymnasts nationally with three scores of 9.975 on beam this season. She posted the score again on Friday, Feb. 21 against Georgia.
-Hu made history in the team's meet against OU, recording the first perfect 10.000 of the 2025 NCAA Division-I women's gymnastics season and her career during her routine on balance beam.
-Following up on her first career 10 against No. 1 Oklahoma, Hu nearly achieved perfection in the following weeks, recording a pair of 9.975s.
-She stands tied for second nationally in beam NQS at 9.940 and fourth in the country in beam scoring an average of 9.911.
-Hu recorded a 9.900 for the 30th time in her career to reach or exceed the score on balance beam in her routine against No. 6 Florida.
-Only one Mizzou gymnast has earned multiple 10.000 scores in a single season - Schwartzman on beam in 2004. Hu will look to join that list as the second in 2025.
-The Chicago native made the national spotlight since then, even being featured at No. 5 on the SportsCenter Top-10 the day after the team's meet against OU.
-Hu's performance is the fourth time a Mizzou gymnast finished with a 10 on beam, most recently done by Sienna Schreiber on March 3, 2024, against Arkansas.
-After the team's meet in Baton Rouge, La., Hu became just the second gymnast in the award's history to win three-consecutive SEC Specialist of the Week awards.
-Hu previously scored at least 9.950 on 15 different occasions before her first perfect 10.
-Hu spent the past year backpacking in Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, Italy and Finland with her sister Elaine.
-In her most recent season of competition, the 2023 campaign, Hu competed in all 13 meets and posted a 9.900 or better on beam in 10. She earned second-team All-America status in the event and was on the end-of-season All-SEC team.
NQS TAKES EFFECT
-Road to Nationals has switched over to NQS to determine its rankings following the seventh week of meets. NQS is calculated by taking a team or individual's top six scores, three of which come from away meets, dropping the highest score and averaging the remaining five.
-Mizzou's first NQS poll saw it positioned at No. 8 in the nation, its highest-ever first NQS ranking. The team held its spot and stayed at No. 8 in the second week of NQS with a score of 197.095.
-Missouri claims a top 10 spot in three events - third in the nation on floor, sixth on bars and 10th on beam.
-The Tigers' highest-ranked individual is Hu, who is third nationally on beam. Her No. 2 ranking ties for the second-highest in program history, only surpassed by Schwartzman who was ranked No. 1 on beam in 2004.
-Celestine and Titarsolej share the No. 9 ranking spots in the top 10 on bars. This is the first time since 2006 that the program has had a pair of gymnasts rank in the top 10 of an event's NQS rankings.
-In total, Mizzou has seven gymnast in the NQS top 25 of an event - Hannah Horton on vault (24), Celestine (9) and Titarsolej (9) on bars, Hu (2) on beam and Jocelyn Moore (10), Celestine (16) and Griffin (24) on floor.
-SEC programs make up the top two, three of the top five and six of the top 10 in the week nine poll.
-All nine of the SEC gymnastics programs are in the top 16 of the rankings, with every program holding an NQS of 196.775 or better.
WANT SOME MO'(ORE)
-Moore, a senior, has had a fantastic 2025 campaign, setting the second-best vault score of 2025 thus far against No. 1 Oklahoma on Jan. 17, recording a 9.975. The vault score against the Sooners marked the fourth time in her career to score or exceed a 9.975.
-She notched her season-best score on floor of 9.950 at Zou to the Lou, one of three Tigers to score a 9.950 or better on floor during the meet.
-She holds the program's lone perfect 10 on vault and two additional scores of 9.975.
-Moore has earned a 9.900 or better in an event in seven of the team's nine meets this season.
-Moore also notched a score of 9.925 on floor for the Tigers against Kentucky. She has scored 9.900 or better on the apparatus five times in the 2025 season and 34 times in her collegiate career, which leads the team.
-Across her 50 collegiate meets throughout her career, Moore has scored 9.900 in one of the three events she competes in all but six of them. She has scored 9.900 an impressive 21 times on vault and 33 times on floor.
STEPPING IN AND STEPPING UP
-With Moore sliding out of the lineup against Georgia due to illness, freshman Kaia Tanskanen stepped up and filled in her spot in the floor exercise for her first career routine and scored a 9.900 for Mizzou.
-Her score marked the third time a freshman earned at least 9.900 in their first collegiate performance in an event since 2020, joining Hu and Hannah Horton.
-Tanskanen is a four-time Finnish National Champion, a two-time World Championship Qualifier and a finalist in the 2023 European Championship.
-She got her start in the Tigers' lineup on vault, competing in the team's first five meets on the apparatus.
JUST A FRESHMAN
-In her first time in the lineup for Mizzou, freshman Olivia Kelly looked like a seasoned vet while competing on bars and beam on national television against No. 6 Kentucky.
-Kelly competed third on beam for the Tigers, notching a 9.900 in her first routine on the event, which was the first time a Mizzou freshman reached the threshold this season.
-At Zou to the Lou, she competed on vault for the first time as a collegiate gymnast and also notched a pair of 9.825s on bars and beam, respectively. Her result on bars tied her career-best result.
-Kelly followed up her performance with a 9.875 against No. 3 LSU on Jan. 31 and a 9.850 against Illinois on Feb. 9.
-She ranked 22nd nationally in average on beam before the team's meet on Feb. 14 at Zou to the Lou.
-Kelly's first routine of her collegiate career came on the uneven bars, where she went fourth in the lineup and earned a solid 9.825 on Jan. 26.
STRIVING FOR MORE
-The team's 11-3 prior to its ninth meet ties the program's best record to start a season since 2009.
-This is the third time a team under Coach Welker reached 11 wins in the regular season.
-Mizzou's win also marked the third year in a row the program earned a win in a dual meet over a top-10 team.
-MU's win against Georgia marked its 10th-straight win against the Bulldogs since 2021.
-Mizzou is up to six-consecutive meets with a team score of at least 197.000.
-The Tigers won their conference home opener for the third-straight year and the fifth time in Welker's 12th year at the helm of the program against No. 6 Kentucky on Jan. 26.
SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED
-Director of Athletics Laird Veatch announced on Thursday, Jan. 2 that gymnastics head coach Shannon Welker signed a contract extension to remain at the helm of the program through 2029.
-Since taking over Mizzou's program in May of 2013, Welker transformed the Tigers into a consistent contender on the national stage.
-He led the program to historic milestones, including multiple NCAA Championship appearances, record-breaking team scores, home attendance records and the development of numerous All-Americans and conference honorees.
UP NEXT
-Missouri gymnastics will travel to Fayetteville, Ark. to wrap up the regular season and take on No. 16 Arkansas at Bud Walton Arena on March 14 at 7 p.m. The meet will be livestreamed on SEC Network+.
-The Tigers last competed against Arkansas in 2024 but fell short at home, 197.650-197.525.
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Players Mentioned
