“We lost (then-sophomore gymnast Shanthi Teike) in the vault warm-ups and had to replace her in all four events, and someone stepped in and did their job. We learned a lot from that competition, and this regional meet the same thing is there.”

The Spartans (7-3-1 overall) are coming off a last-place finish in the Big Ten Championships where they scored a team mark of 194.675.

MSU will travel to the Auburn regional as the sixth seed along with in-state rival Michigan, who was slotted with a No. 4 seed.

The competition will kick off Saturday at 6 p.m. with the Spartans beginning on the floor routines.

The Spartans lost to Michigan 192.700-196.025 in their final meet of the season, something Klages attributed to the lower scores from her team as it headed into the Big Ten Championships.

For sophomore Taira Neal, this will be her second trip to NCAA Regionals, and she has a plan in place to keep her focused on the task at hand, despite competing on a larger stage than she typically is used to.

“I just try to surround myself with my team,” she said. “You can get lost because there’s so much going on at regionals — there’s so many other good teams there with big crowds that I just try to stay in my own zone so I don’t get sidetracked.”

Last year Neal competed only on the vault and has been MSU’s rock when it comes to the event this year, placing first overall in most of the Spartans’ meets this season.

However, she’ll be looking to take a more involved role at regionals and will compete in three of four events at regionals.

Neal and her more experienced teammates have worked with some of the younger gymnasts to help prepare them for the trip to Auburn, something for which freshman Alina Cartwright was grateful.

“I have to admit I’m a little nervous,” she said about participating in her first ever regional tournament.

“Big Tens were kind of a taste of all the media, cameras and being on TV. But it’s also exciting. You get a lot more energy from it, and I really feed off that adrenaline.”