The No. 6 University of Florida gymnastics team (4-1) came close to claiming its first Super Six Challenge team title Friday night in front of the second-largest crowd in UF gymnastics history (8,119), but the team was just short. The No. 2 Georgia GymDogs (5-0) claimed its fourth Super Six Challenge team title at 194.85, while the Gators took second at 194.45. No. 4 Alabama was third at 193.875, followed by Arizona (193.425), Penn State (193.00) and Iowa (190.725).
The Gators started the meet on one of its strongest events of a year ago, the balance beam. Florida turned in a clean set, recording no falls for the evening's second-highest score on the event of 48.75. Sophomore All-American Breanne King claimed her second collegiate balance beam title of her career with a mark of 9.85.
The potential of this Gator team was evident on its next event, the floor exercise. Although Florida was forced to count two falls in its team total of 48.05, the Gators were counting mistakes in routines that contain much more difficulty from the past. Freshman Tiffany Murry and sophomore All-American Savannah Evans led UF on the event with their fourth-place scores of 9.875.
Florida led all teams on vault with its team total of 48.95. Four Gators shared the team-high mark of 9.80 Friday – King, Murry, Evans and freshman Ashley Reed.
The potential for the team win was present heading into the final rotation, as UF needed a 49.125 on the uneven bars to move into first. But two falls on difficult landings didn't allow the Gators to tally the needed score. Sophomore All-American Samantha Lutz hit her routine for her first collegiate uneven bars win with a mark of 9.875.
Although there were some breaks tonight, UF Head Coach Rhonda Faehn sees the potential for a great season.
| Super Six Challenge Team Standings |
| | Team | Vault | Bars | Beam | Floor | Total |
| 1. | Georgia | 48.6000 | 48.575 | 48.875 | 48.800 | 194.850 |
| 2. | Florida | 48.950 | 48.700 | 48.750 | 48.050 | 194.450 |
| 3. | Alabama | 48.675 | 47.575 | 48.525 | 49.100 | 193.875 |
| 4. | Arizona | 48.500 | 48.350 | 47.975 | 48.600 | 193.425 |
| 5. | Penn State | 48.625 | 48.275 | 47.775 | 48.325 | 193.000 |
| 6. | Iowa | 47.125 | 48.550 | 47.300 | 47.750 | 190.725 |
"Obviously we are really excited about the Super Six Challenge because we see that the team we have this year is a very strong team. I would say it's the strongest team we've ever had," she said.
"We put some new routines out there, and we had excellent bright spots, but we also had difficult spots and it was at those spots that we had the more difficult moves. You can't count three falls and expect to win. We will take this and improve on it. I am not disappointed in the score; I was not even really looking at the score. We are more excited about the potential we can achieve," she continued. "We definitely didn't water anything down and we did our hardest skills possible. We wanted to give our athletes a chance to learn how to perform those skills now."
Other winners Friday included Alabama junior Ashley Miles, who took the vault (9.90), all-around (39.35) and shared the floor title with teammate Alexis Brion and Georgia's Katie Heenan (9.90). Florida's top all-arounder was King, who moved up a spot in the standings from a year ago to take second at 39.20.
Next up, the Gators travel to No. 8 Louisiana State for a Jan. 14 dual meet.
