He saw the crowd swell around him and his teammates begin to pop up around the green. He saw his head coach jump over to his group and the large brim of his athletic director’s sun hat among the people. That must have been a good sign, he later said.

Josiah Gilbert was about to learn he was the pivotal point Auburn needed to close out an SEC team championship win over Vanderbilt. Teammate Carson Bacha had just won his match on the 18th hole after Jackson Koivun already finished a dominant 7&6 win in his own match and the parade of golf carts swung back to find Gilbert on the 15th fairway.

“I took it as a sign that we only needed one more,” Gilbert said. “I did get a little nervous on 15. But up until then, I was pretty locked in.”

Yet suddenly thrust into the biggest moment of his young college golf career, Gilbert held serve. He did it against Gordon Sargent, one of the most heralded college golfers of his generation.

And he finished off in the arms of his teammates and coaches watching. This was Gilbert’s moment.

Gilbert clinched Auburn’s fifth SEC team title in program history 3-2 over Vanderbilt. It’s Auburn’s first title since 2018. It’s an Auburn team where no one had ever played for an SEC title before, and beat a far more experienced Vanderbilt side. Auburn, the No. 1 ranked team in America, has now beaten No. 2 Vanderbilt twice this season.

Both times, it’s been lifted by its freshman. On this day, those freshmen helped Auburn lift a trophy.

“How ‘bout that for a freshman,” head coach Nick Clinard yelled as he hugged Gilbert on the 16th green.

Maybe Auburn knew what it had in Koivun — the top-ranked player in his high school class who won the SEC individual championship on Friday and already emerged as one of the best collegiate golfers in America and a top 10 amateur in the world despite only being a freshman.

Maybe it didn’t quite know this about Gilbert.

“From day one we were always treated as though we were not freshmen,” Gilbert said. “The upperclassmen have done a really good job of that. They’ve welcomed us with open arms and then they’ve held us to the same standard as them. That matured us very quickly.”

Before Saturday, Gilbert hadn’t participated in a collegiate match play event. He’d had experience in junior golf, but not under pressure like the knockout rounds of the SEC championship.

He won all three of his weekend matches.

And maybe the matchup against Sargent in the final would be too big. Clinard said he wanted Gilbert to learn from Sargent. But learning had to come by fire sometimes, and this was that opportunity. He wanted to have Gilbert in maybe the most difficult matchup. He said Gilbert would not back down.

It’s exactly what Gilbert wanted, too.

“I love it,” Gilbert said of the matchup. “It’s always going to be a challenge. Makes you switch on a little bit. Once you have that opportunity, it’s a good time to take it. There’s no bigger stage in the SEC. It’s just a great place to show what you’ve worked for.”

Gilbert fell one back after the first hole against Sargent. Gilbert then proceeded to win five of the next six holes to swing that deficit into a 4-up lead. That was in large part due to his putting, which was, as Gilbert said, locked in over the front nine especially.

He never allowed Sargent any closer than within three holes.

One group behind him, Koivun dominated. He didn’t lose a single hole against Vanderbilt’s Matthew Riedel.

Auburn’s two freshmen combined to win their matches by 11 holes over two of the top 25 ranked amateur golfers in the world.

Gilbert won the SEC Freshman of the Week award in October but hasn’t been the same mainstay in Auburn lineups that Koivun has been. Gilbert was the No. 24 ranked player in his class — highly ranked, but maybe not that of Koivun.

Gilbert proved he belonged just the same.

In October, Auburn junior Brendan Valdes said the freshmen might be the missing piece to get Auburn over the hump this year. In winning the SEC crown, Valdes was proved right. He and several more veteran Auburn teammates finally won a team title during their time here. The next step is NCAA tournament events where Auburn will enter as a likely favorite and No. 1 overall team. Gilbert will assuredly be part of the lineup.

But Auburn feels it knew what it had in Gilbert all along.

“We didn’t really learn nothing,” teammate J.M. Butler said after lifting the trophy. “We already knew. He’s a dawg. Koivun’s a dawg. This team is just full of dawgs, I’ll be honest.”

Butler then went to take a few more pictures. He and his teammates wore SEC medals around their necks and SEC champions hats and t-shirts. They finished their photoshoot and then all raced to get in the van and hit the road back to Auburn.

They’re supposed to be back at Toomer’s Corner by 6. The toilet paper is waiting.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]