Suni Lee scores perfect 10 on beam, makes NCAA gymnastics history with 'Nabieva' on uneven bars

AUBURN, Ala. — Jeff Graba thinks it was nine years ago at a summer camp when Suni Lee first practiced a variation of the "Nabieva" skill on uneven bars.

"That release move is near and dear to my heart," the Auburn gymnastics coach said. "The first time she ever threw anything close to that, it was in our practice facility."

On Friday night, it was time to roll it out. A sluggish start needed to be nullified.

Auburn had stumbled through the opening vault rotation against Kentucky with a 49.275 — the lowest event score in four weeks. Team marks are supposed to improve throughout the season, so the regression was an unexpected blip.

Enter the 18-year-old Lee, changing the trajectory of another meet at Auburn Arena by once again changing the standard for what can be accomplished at the college level.

Lee debuted the Nabieva, making it the first time the skill has ever been performed in NCAA gymnastics. She stuck the landing and narrowly missed a perfect 10, settling for a 9.875 to the mixed joy and chagrin of her home-court supporters. They let the judges know how they felt about it.

The crowd seemed to forget Lee was only halfway done.

The Auburn freshman — she also goes by Best Gymnast in the World — executed a flawless balance beam routine, delivering her second perfect 10 of the season and her first inside Auburn Arena.

Vindicated, the arena erupted. Lee's evening of innovation ended with perfection.

"It's so fun for me, because growing up watching college gymnastics ... you always knew what to expect," Lee said. "When I go out there, I want people to not know what I'm going to do."

Auburn, entering Friday with the fifth-highest National Qualifying Score in the country, won the meet with its best-ever team score. The new program record is 197.925, and it will likely be broken again by the end of 2022, the way this is trending. The team's goal is a 198. Auburn managed its score Friday in spite of the opening-rotation disappointment.

"They settled themselves down," Graba said. "That's going to come in handy."

Auburn and Kentucky entered the final rotation deadlocked, but Lee and senior Derrian Gobourne both scored a 9.975 to anchor the Tigers' floor routine. Kentucky finished the night with a 197.150. Lee won the all-around competition with a 39.775.

She had conquered the moment again, as she has a knack for doing weekly. In Auburn's previous meet at Georgia, she swept first place in every event, including her vault in which she debuted another skill to NCAA for the first time.

"She needs to be challenged," Graba said. "She gets bored easily. And when you get bored in this sport, you make silly mistakes. We need to continue to challenge her, and we need to continue to take the kid gloves off. She's ready to continue to improve. There's more in the tank."

Lee is the second Auburn gymnast to ever score two perfect 10s in her college career, joining Becky Erwin (1993). Lee's beam Friday was the seventh perfect 10 in program history.

Auburn earned its way to the No. 5 ranking not on one superstar's back, but with superior depth. The Tigers got a vital character back Friday: Junior Aria Brusch, regarded as one of the team's leaders, had been out two weeks. She returned on bars, scoring a 9.95 to help spark the turnaround.

"Sticking my dismount, that's the one thing I feel like is holding me back," Brusch said. "Doing it first try after being out for a while — it was great."

Graba said Brusch is getting close to adding other events, too.

"When she returns, everybody settles down," Graba said. "I don't know where Aria goes in the next few weeks, but it definitely isn't our finalized lineup. If we're almost breaking a 198 and still experimenting with lineups, we're in pretty good shape."

Freshman Sophia Groth, also competing all-around, stuck a career-high 9.875 on bars. After the Tigers' slow start on vault, the response was a season-high score on bars (49.575).

Gobourne's finale put the Tigers over the top. Their score sat at 197.7 entering her floor routine, which punctuates every home meet. The program record was 197.75. Gobourne confidently matched Lee's floor score. Record broken. And Auburn is "closer and closer every week" to that 198, Brusch said.

How close? Take it from Suni Lee: "It's definitely coming soon."

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Suni Lee scores perfect 10, makes NCAA history with skill's debut