Gymnastics Packed Weekend for Alabama

It'll be a busy weekend for the Alabama gymnastics team. Its weekend starts Friday with the senior night meet against the Arkansas Razorbacks. Six gymnasts, Griffin James, Shallon Olsen, Sania Mitchell, Kaylee Quinn, Emily Gaskins and super-senior Lexi Graber will be recognized.

Head coach Dana Duckworth said this is a "special" class.

"This is a class that has gone through a global pandemic. This is class that had their postseason stripped from them. This is a class who came back anyway and won an SEC Championship, and this is a class that loves this sport and each other," Duckworth said.

The seniors hope to get the win in their final home meet in Coleman Coliseum and finish the season 6-0 at home.

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The Tide will have Saturday to recover before traveling to Huntsville to compete in a quad meet.  Elevate the Stage is on podium which means that every event will be on an elevated platform. Duckworth said getting to compete on podium is beneficial to the team.

"They get to get comfortable on the platform that gives a little added bounce," Duckworth said. "They have to learn how to adjust to that and work with it versus against it, and that's a very valuable opportunity going into postseason."

Auburn, Georgia and Arkansas will join Bama in the Rocket City. If the Tide wins Friday, it will go into Sunday's meet 2-1 against the teams competing. Alabama's only loss between the three teams was at Auburn, which was a challenging environment where fans were deafening at times. Auburn barely beat Arkansas in Fayetteville 197.250-197.200 and lost at LSU.

In a neutral site, it should be interesting to see how each team performs and how much fans impact the meet.

The senior night meet on Friday starts at 7 p.m. and will air on the SEC Network+. Elevate the Stage begins at 1 p.m. Sunday and does not look like it will be broadcasted anywhere. To stay up to date with the Alabama Gymnastics team, follow @tide1009, @julietbrown_tv, or @kaylawest_tv on Twitter.