Lindsey Puckett’s reason for why the beam, of all four events, is her absolute favorite couldn’t be more matter of fact.

Surely, for a limber gymnast that risks her body with every flip, twist and twirl, there has to be some fancy technicality that pushes it over the top, right?

Not for Puckett.

She’s more of a realist.

“Not everybody can walk on 4 inches and flip on 4 inches,” Puckett said. “Each time you make it, it’s kind of like a personal victory.”

Consider Puckett’s most recent “victory” the biggest of her career and one of the best in Auburn gymnastics history.

Puckett scored a 9.975 on the beam Friday at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum, hands down the biggest highlight of the second-best all-around performance of her career. Her big night, coupled with another night of no recorded falls for Auburn, propelled the Tigers past Iowa State, 196.275-195.225, in front of 2,861 fans.

One of the two judges — “the hard one,” Puckett said — scored Puckett’s beam routine as a 10, but her score dropped slightly when the other marked it as a 9.95.

The 25-thousandths of a point didn’t put a damper on Puckett’s post-routine party. As her career-best score twirled toward the eyes of the Auburn bench and the fans behind it, Puckett teared up, as the teammates surrounding her screamed.

“I’ve never gotten a 10 at all — ever. So this is the first time,” Puckett said. “It’s surreal.”

Coach Jeff Thompson was 25-thousandths-of-a-point more impressed than the two judges.

“It’s really early in the season and judges don’t like to throw 10s out there,” Thompson said. “But that was a flawless beam routine.”

Asked what would merit a 10 this early in the season, Thompson jokingly replied “that.”

If there is such a thing as momentum in gymnastics, it carried over to Puckett’s end-of-meet floor routine.

Sophomore Katie Hurley fell twice during her routine, resulting in an 8.8 mark. The meet was by no means in danger when Puckett stepped up in
the anchor position, “but it still would have been too close for comfort,” Thompson said.

Puckett’s country-music inspired 9.9 on the floor routine pushed her over the top for a season-high 39.525 in the all-around, and insured that
Auburn’s first win since the start of the season wouldn’t come down to hundredths or thousandths.

“We’re happy because we got good scores,” Thompson said. “That’s our first 196 at home in a long time. We’ve had four really high scores to start the season and it should hold us up really high in the rankings with LSU coming up.”

Puckett wasn’t the only Auburn gymnast that notched a career night Friday.

Fellow senior A.J. Mills scored a career-high 39.5 in the all-around and took home the best score in the uneven bars with a 9.9. Puckett notched meet-bests in the other three events.

“They’ve been doing it for four years and they’re starting to figure out their routine is the same no matter how many people are watching,” Thompson said. “Now that they’ve been in our system as long as they have, it’s automatic.”

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