02/13 at 12:59 AM

The Auburn softball team will host the Tiger Invitational Tournament this weekend at the Jane B. Moore Field and play a pair of games in the tournament’s opening day today.

The Tigers will play Eastern Kentucky at 12:30 p.m. and follow that with a 3 p.m. game against Missouri-Kansas City.

Auburn will play once Saturday, taking on Western Kentucky at 10 a.m. The Tigers will close the tournament on Sunday, with a 2 p.m. game against Morehead State. All Auburn games will be carried locally on WZMG AM 910 and via the internet at http://www.auburntigers.com.

“We are excited about playing in front of our home crowd this weekend,” Auburn head coach Tina Deese said. “We have some really good teams coming in for the Tiger Invitational and this will certainly be a good challenge for us.”

The Tigers are 6-1 on the season and are coming off a 5-2 win over Jacksonville State on Tuesday night and a 6-0 over Georgia State on Wednesday night.

Senior outfielder Myesha Finney has led the Tigers offensively, hitting .429 with seven RBI, two home runs and a double in the first seven games.

“Myesha has certainly gotten off to a good start for us this season,” Deese added. “She is one of our three seniors and has given us what we were counting on, especially with so many young players on the team.”

The Tigers have seven true freshmen on the roster, with four of those seeing playing time in at least six of the first seven games. Catcher Elizabeth Eisterhold has started every game behind the plate and is second on the team with a .381 batting average, while Lauren Guzman has started every game at second base.

The first game of the Tiger Invitational is at 10 a.m. and will feature Furman vs. Eastern Kentucky. Admission to all games is free.

No. 6 gymnastics hosts No. 7 Arkansas
The sixth-ranked Auburn gymnastics team (3-3, 1-2 SEC) will return to Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum to play host to seventh-ranked Arkansas (6-1, 3-0 SEC) tonight at 7 p.m. Live stats and video will be available on auburntigers.com.

Today’s meet may prove to be the closest yet of the season as both Auburn and Arkansas are nearly even in the Feb. 9 edition of GymInfo’s rankings. The Tigers enter the contest averaging a 196.175 to the Razorbacks 196.112. Auburn is ranked fourth on floor (49.158), sixth on beam (49.017), eighth on bars (48.967) and 12th on vault (49.033).

Arkansas is ranked third on floor (49.179), sixth on bars (49.104) and 11th on both vault (49.046) and beam (48.783).

“Our team knows the challenge they are going to face Friday night against Arkansas,” head gymnastics coach Jeff Thompson said. “They know that we are basically the same as they are. We are going to have to be more perfect than Arkansas in order to win the meet and that is the goal.”

Individually, Auburn boasts both of the nation’s sixth-ranked all-arounders in the senior duo of A.J. Mills and Lindsey Puckett. Both gymnasts are averaging a 39.362 through five weeks. Mills is also ranked 16th on beam and 20th on bars, while Puckett is listed fourth on vault and ninth on floor. Sophomore Rachel Inniss is ranked seventh on floor.

Just in front of Mills and Puckett on the all-around list is Arkansas’ Casey Jo Magee who is sporting a 39.367 average. She is Arkansas’ only top-10 gymnast on an event, listed ninth on beam. Magee also ranks 14th on bars. Also appearing in the top-20 rankings for the Razorbacks is junior Michelle Stout, ranked 14th on vault. Freshman Jamie Pisani owns a pair of top-20 rankings at No. 16 on both vault and floor.

When Auburn hosts the Razorbacks, it will be the 13th all-time meeting between the teams. The Razorbacks’ gymnastics program is in only its sixth season, but holds a 7-5 series advantage against the Tigers. Auburn has one dual win over the Razorbacks in six head-to-head meetings, defeating Arkansas 196.300-194.975 in the first-ever meeting on Feb. 14, 2003, in Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum. The Tigers’ four other wins against Arkansas have come at the SEC Championship, most recently outscoring the Razorbacks 196.100-194.650 in 2008.

The Tigers return home after losing to third-ranked Georgia 197.250-195.925 on Feb. 7 in Athens, Ga. Auburn will be looking to pick up their second SEC win, while also dealing Arkansas its first league loss. Co-head coaches Mark and Rene Zook’s Razorback squad is tied for first in the conference with a 3-0 record. Among those three wins are victories over Florida (196.375-195.425) and Alabama (196.625-196.525), both coming at home in Barnhill Arena. Last week in Lexington, Ky., the Razorbacks handed Kentucky a 195.075-194.500 loss.

Even though Arkansas picked up the road win over the Wildcats, the Razorbacks posted a season-low 48.975 in the third rotation on floor and had two gymnasts fall on beam to finish with a 47.925 on the final event. 

Today’s meet will be National Girls & Women in Sports Day Celebration.

Prior to the meet, there will be mini-clinics and autograph signing on the Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum concourse from 5:30-7 p.m. Auburn women’s athletic teams scheduled to be in attendance will be the Auburn’s women’s basketball, women’s golf, equestrian and volleyball. Auburn cheerleaders, women’s club lacrosse and club ultimate frisbee will also be in attendance. The first 250 fans will receive free ‘I Love AU’ keychain.

The Auburn gymnastics team will hold an autograph session on the concourse at the conclusion of the meet.

Track travels to Arkansas, Iowa
The Auburn men’s and No. 24 women’s track and field teams return to action this weekend, with most of the squad heading to Fayetteville, Ark., for the Tyson Invitational.

Three throwers will travel to Ames, Iowa, for the Iowa State Classic. Competition at both meets takes place throughout the day both today and Saturday.

This weekend’s competition is the last of the season prior to the SEC Indoor Championships on Feb. 27-March 1 in Lexington, Ky., and head coach Ralph Spry views this weekend as a prime opportunity to get a large number of individuals qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships. So far this season, nine Tigers (six men, three women) and a relay team have posted marks that make them eligible for the NCAA Indoor Championships.

“It’s going to be a very big weekend for us,” said Spry. “Last weekend at Penn State we had a very good performance, but this weekend we’re running on a track that is probably the fastest in the nation, and the competition will be the stiffest we’ve faced all year long. I’m looking forward to us getting a lot of national qualifiers and a lot of personal bests this weekend. I really have high expectations.”

Raevan Harris is the only Tiger to have a guaranteed spot at the NCAA Championships, thanks to her No. 2-ranked mark in the high jump that met the automatic qualifying standard. The rest are provisionally qualified and will make the field if they are ranked high enough in their respective events prior to the NCAA Indoor meet.

Joanna Atkins has qualifying marks in three events, and holds the rare distinction of being the only woman in the NCAA to post qualifying marks in the 60, 200 and 400 meters. She is also part of the women’s 4x400-meter relay team that owns the nation’s second-fastest time. The other women who is provisionally qualified is Nivea Smith (200 meters).

For the men, Marcus Rowland owns qualifying marks in two events - the 60 and 200 meters.  Four distance runners have qualifying marks in one event each (Elkanah Kibet - 3,000m; Felix Kiboiywo - Mile; Girma Mecheso - 5,000m; Jean-Pierre Weerts - 3,000m) and Eric Werskey has a qualifying mark in the shot put.

Among the nine individuals who have met the qualifying standards, only Harris is a senior. Kibet, Kiboiywo, Weerts and Werskey are juniors, Atkins is a sophomore and Rowland, Mecheso and Smith are freshmen.

More information on the Tyson Invitational and complete results will be available at http://www.ArkansasRazorbacks.com.  The meet will also be shown on a tape-delayed basis on ESPN on Sunday from 4-6 p.m. Information on the Iowa State Classic is available at http://www.cyclones.com.