AU ROUNDUP: Track’s Knight honored by SEC

Special to the News

Hollie Knight of the Auburn women’s track and field team was named SEC Female Freshman of the Week on Tuesday.

Knight finished fourth out of 27 runners in the 10,000m at the Penn Relays last Thursday, finishing with an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 34:59.18. Her time smashed the Auburn freshman record of 36:12 set by Nerissa Johnson in 1999 and also ranks her fourth in school history.

Auburn will host the SEC Outdoor Track and Field Championships on May 15-18 at Hutsell-Rosen Track.

Men’s tennis earns NCAA bid
The No. 35 Auburn men’s tennis team earned its ninth consecutive NCAA Tournament berth and is set to face No. 28 Wake Forest in the first round, the NCAA announced Tuesday.

For the second year in a row, the Tigers advance to the NCAA Regional in Athens, Ga., and will face the Demon Deacons on May 10 at 9 a.m. at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. The NCAA Tournament berth is the 16th overall for Auburn and the 14th in the last 15 years.

“We thought that this was a bit of a re-building year for us, so it is nice to make the NCAA Tournament again,” said head coach Eric Shore. “We played an extremely tough schedule this year and I thought we sputtered a bit down the stretch, but we’ve had some time off and are looking good.”

Women’s tennis also headed to NCAAs
The Auburn women’s tennis team will travel to Gainesville, Fla., to compete in the first round of the NCAA Tournament hosted by No. 6 seed Florida. The Tigers will face off with Ohio State in the first round May 9.

“We are excited to make the field,” said Auburn head coach Tim Gray. “Ohio State is a very good team and they are very well coached. We know their team a little bit. They will be a very formidable opponent. We hope that we can get past them and maybe have another crack at Florida, but first things first.”

Auburn makes its second consecutive run in the NCAA tournament.