Florida Gators

The No. 10 University of Florida gymnastics team (1-5) lost to No. 2 Georgia (5-0-1) 196.50-195.10 Saturday evening in front of a sellout Stegeman Coliseum crowd of 9,951. Heading into the final rotation, the Gators had narrowed Georgia's team advantage to .55 of a point. But UF was forced to count a fall toward its balance beam team total and Georgia put together an extremely strong floor exercise set, which gave the GymDogs the meet crown.

"It was only the second meet of the season. Am I disappointed that we had two falls off beam? Yes. But those falls came from our seniors and I know that they will get the job done. The freshmen are sure coming through. I am very encouraged by the aggressiveness with which we competed. There were some wonderful individual performances. Hilary Thompson continues to do a great job for us. Kara Waterhouse, other than the fall on floor, did a great job on beam and bars," said UF Head Coach Judi Markell.

The Gators opened the meet on the uneven bars, turning in a team total of 48.80. For the second meet in a row, a freshman led the Gators on the event, as Erin Pendleton turned in a mark of 9.825. Her mark tied for fourth overall in the meet. The Gators then moved to the vault, where they posted a total of 48.925. Senior Teal Chiabotti led UF on the event for the second consecutive week, upping her season-best vault score to 9.85, which tied for third overall. Two other Gators turned in marks of 9.80 on the vault – sophomore Lindsey Miner and junior Krissy Dreger.

Florida then moved to the floor exercise. The Gators' final two performers, Thompson and Miner, each posted marks of 9.80. For the event, UF posted a team total of 48.75. On UF's final event, the balance beam, the Gators were forced to count one fall towards the team's event total of 48.625, while UGA turned in a team total of 49.475 on floor to give them the meet title. But UF's Waterhouse shared her first collegiate event title on the beam with Thompson and UGA's Talya Vexler, as each turned in marks of 9.90. Miner also turned in a mark of 9.85 on the event.

"After the falls, the pressure was on Lindsey to come through and she did," said Markell. "Same thing with Kara and Hilary."

Georgia freshman Sierra Sapunar used identical marks of 9.95 to claim the evening's vault and uneven bars titles. The floor exercise was won by UGA's Marline Stephens at 9.95. The all-around title was claimed by UGA senior Kristi Lichey at 39.525, while UF's Thompson was second at 39.25.

"All together, I guess my performance was great, but looking at each event there are definitely improvements I can make on each event which will make the team score and the all-around score higher," said Thompson. "But for the second meet, I was pretty happy with the everybody's performance. We had to count a fall and still had a 195.10, so that was great."

Next up, the Gator gymnastics team opens the 2001 home season on Friday, Jan. 19 with The Dodge Premier featuring No. 5 Alabama. Meet time is set for 7 p.m. in the Stephen C. O'Connell Center. Tickets are $4.00 for adults, while children 17 and under and UF students with identification are admitted free.