The No. 4 Auburn gymnastics team (1-1, 0-1 SEC) will hit the road to take on No. 1 Florida (1-0, 0-0 SEC) tonight at 6 p.m. in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Gainesville, Fla.

“We need to go in there and hit; we need to hit on bars to get us off to a good start,” head coach Jeff Thompson said. “Florida has a great team. They have a lot of gymnasts returning and a lot of depth. If we can do our job on bars and vault like we have been, I think it will be close going into the third rotation.”

The last time that Auburn topped the Gators was on Feb. 13, 2004, in Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum, but Auburn has not won in Gainesville since Jan. 22, 1993. Robert Dillard coached the Tigers to a 191.300-191.250 victory.

Track & Field opens season in Kentucky
The Auburn men’s and women’s track and field teams open the 2009 indoor season today-Saturday at the Kentucky Invitational.

The meet, which will be held at the E.J. Nutter Field House, begins today at 4 p.m. with just four field events contested the first day. Saturday’s competition begins with field events at 9:30 a.m., while running events begin at 11:30 a.m.

Thirty-three Tigers (18 men and 15 women) are scheduled to make the trip to Kentucky for the meet.

Auburn will face stiff competition with several nationally-ranked squads competing in Lexington.

Men’s teams competing include No. 4 Florida, No. 9 Louisville, No. 11 Kentucky, No. 16 South Carolina and No. 20 Georgia.

The women’s meet includes No. 4 Tennessee, No. 13 Florida, No. 16 South Carolina, No. 20 Miami (Fla.), No. 22 Kentucky and No. 25 Louisville.

Also in attendance will be SEC squads from Alabama (men only), Ole Miss and Vanderbilt (women only). Other schools attending include UCF, Eastern Kentucky, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Marshall, Middle Tennessee, Ohio State and Western Kentucky.