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INSIDE THE AUBURN TIGERS

Gymnasts Preparing For NCAA Regionals

The Auburn women's gymnastics team hopes to qualify for the nationals by finishing in the top two at the NCAA Central Regionals in Baton Rouge, La., on Saturday.

Robert Dillard
Dillard
If Auburn does not qualify for the NCAA Championships, which are scheduled for April 22-24 in Salt Lake City, it will be the final team meet for Auburn coach Robert Dillard, who announced before the season that he is retiring following the 1999 campaign. Even if the team falls short of its goal, there is a possibility that Auburn's top three gymnasts-Sarah Wentworth, Sarah Balogach and Sally Cantrell-could score high enough to qualify for the nationals in the individual competition.

"We have a shot of moving on to nationals," Dillard says. "I believe it will be between four schools-LSU, Stanford, Kentucky and Auburn. If we can have our best meet of the year and score a 195 and have things go our way, we could be extending our season two weeks."

Auburn finished last of six teams at the SEC Championships, which were won by defending national champion Georgia. With the exception of LSU and Kentucky, the other SEC programs (Alabama, Florida and Georgia) will be trying to qualify for the nationals at other regionals.

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