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No. 1 Florida Gymnastics Wins SEC Championship
The No. 1 University of
Florida gymnastics team (15-2, 6-1 SEC) claimed its second consecutive
Southeastern Conference title Saturday evening in front of 5,395 at the
Verizon Arena. It is the ninth overall title for the Gators.
Florida
used its highest score ever in SEC Championships competition – 198.00 -
to take the program’s ninth overall crown. Two-time defending NCAA
champion Alabama was second at 197.80, followed by LSU (197.70),
Georgia (197.325), Auburn (196.55), Arkansas (196.40), Missouri
(195.525) and Kentucky (194.60).
As the league
expanded this season to eight teams sponsoring gymnastics with the
addition of Missouri, the SEC Championships moved to two sessions of
four-teams each. The sessions were seeded based on national rank and
Saturday’s evening session showed why each of the four participating
teams were ranked nationally among the top 10 as the lead and placing
among the teams moved from rotation to rotation.
As
the top-seeded team, Florida opened the meet on vault. The event is
usually a strong scoring event, as the Gators entered the meet No. 1 on
the event. But steps on landings dinged Florida’s score and the team
found itself in fourth place with its vault total of 49.375 after the
opening rotation.
If the Gators were disappointed
in their vault performance, it didn’t show in the next rotation.
Florida turned in a solid 49.50 on uneven bars, thanks to three marks
of 9.925 or above. Freshman Bridget Sloan, who would claim a share of
the SEC all-around title, led UF on bars with her winning total of
9.95, while senior Marissa King and junior Mackenzie Caquatto each
turned in 9.925s.
“What I love is we didn’t get
upset about that (performance on vault) and they didn’t take it down to
the next event,” UF Head Coach Rhonda Faehn said. “That’s the key to a
team that’s going to succeed in the postseason.”
LSU led the meet at the midway point at 99.15 while Florida’s total of 98.875 moved stood second.
Balance
beam was next and the Gators’ total of 49.50 shared the meet’s highest
on the event. Four marks of 9.90 or better were posted by the Gators.
Sloan led with a 9.925 while sophomore Rachel Spicer, Caquatto and
senior Ashanée Dickerson each earned 9.9s.
That
performance put the Gators in the lead by the slenderest of margins,
148.375 to 148.35, over Alabama heading into the final rotation.
Faehn knew the Gators needed to deliver on their final event to keep the trophy in Gainesville.
“It
was down to the wire. I can’t say that I love it like that. It was very
stressful,” Faehn said. “But really, that’s what our fans love. I love
a football game where it will come down to the last touchdown or field
goal, so it’s kind of the same thing. It’s an incredible thing when it
comes down to the last event.”
A big score on
floor exercise would win it for the Gators and that is exactly what the
team delivered. Its floor total of 49.625 equaled the meet’s highest of
the event and gave them the margin needed over Alabama who earned the
meet’s highest vault total of 49.55 on the final rotation.
All
six Gators earned floor marks of 9.90 or better. Hunter and Sloan each
earned 9.95s, King a 9.925 and senior Randy Stageberg, sophomore
Kiersten Wang and Dickerson each posted 9.9s.
Faehn spoke about the team’s determination.
“It
was outstanding. It was a different team, a different chemistry,
different makeup this year,” Faehn said. “They were not going to go
down without winning a conference championship this year.
A
pair of unusual scoring deductions was taken after the meet concluded.
Georgia questioned a floor exercise out-of-bounds deduction and asked
for a video review. The judges reviewed the video and determined the
deduction stood. The rule states that any video review that isn’t
affirmative for the inquiring team results in a three-tenths team
deduction. After reviewing the final score sheet, Alabama determined
that two of its gymnasts went of competitive order on the uneven bars,
so a tenth deduction was taken off the event score.
Sloan
shared the SEC all-around title with LSU’s Rheagan Courville at 39.75.
Those two picked up some of the league’s highest honors yesterday, as
Sloan was named the SEC Freshman of the Year and Courville was named
the SEC Gymnast of the Year. The total matches Sloan’s collegiate-best
set March 1 and the 39.75 stands behind Hunter’s 39.80 as the nation’s
second-highest of 2013.
Sloan is the second
consecutive Gator freshman to win the SEC all-around, as Hunter took
the 2012 title. This is the eighth time a Gator has won the SEC
all-around title.
Three Gators competed as
all-arounders Saturday and all finished among the meet’s final five.
Hunter took third at 39.60 and Dickerson shared fifth at 39.475.
Sloan
also shared two other event titles, including one with a fellow
teammate. Hunter and Sloan were among a five-way tie for the floor
title with season-bests of 9.95. Sloan also used that same mark to
share the SEC uneven bars title with Georgia’s Brittany Rogers.
LSU’s
Courville used the evening’s only 10.0 to take the vault win.
Courville, Rogers and UGA’s Shayla Worley shared the beam win at 9.95.
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