The No. 6 University of Florida gymnastics team (10-2, 5-1 SEC) finished out its 2005 Southeastern Conference regular-season with a 196.925-193.15 win over Kentucky (4-6, 0-6 SEC) Friday evening in front of a Stephen C. O'Connell Center crowd of 2,429. Florida's team score was just a fraction away from its 2005 best of 196.95 set Jan. 21.
The Gators posted 49.00-plus team totals in each event for the third time this season. Florida opened the meet on the event that has been its strongest this season, the vault, turning in a 49.30. Freshman Ashley Reed won the event with a season-best score of 9.925, while teammates Katie Rue (9.875) and Breanne King (9.85) rounded out the UF sweep of the event.
Senior All-American Orley Szmuch, who sprained her right ankle in UF's last home meet on Feb. 11, returned to the Gator lineup on Friday to claim her second uneven bars title of the season. Szmuch matched the UF season-best of 9.90 for the win. Freshman Tiffany Murry was runner-up at 9.85, while King and Reed shared third at 9.80 with Kentucky's Krystle Cook.
"I'm definitely happy just to be out on the floor and to be able to provide a score for my team," Szmuch said. "It was pretty hard to sit back and watch at Arkansas when my team didn't have the best bars meet. I am happy I am back in that event. I'm glad I did well, I know I can do better. I want to get back to the other events, too, but this is okay. This is better than nothing, for sure."
Florida went six-for-six for balance beam, tallying its second-highest beam total of 2005 at 49.25. King collected her fourth beam title of the season with a mark of 9.90. Senior All-American Erinn Dooley matched her season-best of 9.875 to take second while sophomore All-American Samantha Lutz completed the UF sweep to take third at 9.85.
Murry made the most of her return to the UF floor lineup, winning the event title by matching her collegiate-best of 9.925. Friday's floor performance was the first for Murry since Jan. 28. Reed earned a collegiate-best floor score of 9.90 to take second. Kentucky's Michelle Gales was third at 9.875.
UF Head Coach Rhonda Faehn said the Gators followed their game plan Friday.
"It was wonderful to see that our athletes still competed at such a high level of intensity that was as if it was just us in the arena. Not only that, but we had so many goals and objectives in mind that we had to achieve, whether it was changing the lineup, putting Orley back in on bars, changing the lineup on floor and adding different skills," Faehn said. "I made Breanne King's beam routine more difficult once again and Samantha (Lutz) attempted a last (floor) pass with more difficulty."
Fahen was pleased that a return to an event lineup was successful for two Gators Friday.
"Orley's performance on bars was great. She is obviously excited to be back in there, and I know there is a tremendous amount of frustration and stress along with injury. It was nice to see just after two weeks, that not only did she come back in, but she also did a great job. She's training beam again too—everything but the dismount," she said. "The performance that Tiffany did tonight was unbelievable. We knew she was capable of this performance and it was nice to see she stepped up and did a great job on bars again and got back into the floor lineup and did a great routine."
Two Gators competed as all-arounders Friday and both gymnasts bettered the previous UF season-best all-around total of 39.375. Reed used a collegiate-best total of 39.425 to win her second all-around title of the last three meets. King was second with her season-best total of 39.40 for her sixth top-two all-around finish of 2005. Reed was pleased that her week of practice showed results in Friday's performance.
"I just went out there strong and hard with everything. I really tried to work on the landings and I got a good stick landing (on vault) and that was good because I had been working on that all week in the gym. We switched up my beam a little bit. I had a new part in it, so it was a little different. I was glad I got to do it and I performed it pretty well, so I was happy about that. Floor is just a lot of fun. I love going out and performing since I got my new routine a few meets ago. I had a bad bars warm up, but I felt confidant enough to go out and there and hit my routine and it turned out well," Reed said. "I was especially excited tonight because a lot of my family were able to attend. It was fun because I just wanted to go out there and make them proud."
Faehn said there is more success in Reed's future.
"When we recruited Ashley, her coach, Jeff Wood, from Orlando said she is going to be a star. She is just starting to peak, she's thriving, she is coming into her own and she is going to be a star. He definitely knows what he's talking about because she has even still so much more potential ahead of her," Faehn said. "She is a performer - I can see it in her eyes. She is getting more aggressive every single competition with every single routine. She is fighting for the landings now and it's nice to see."
Next up, the Gators take a trip west to face perennial gymnastics powers. The weekend begins Friday, March 4 when No. 4 Utah plays host to a quad meet featuring Stanford and California. Then Florida travels to Los Angeles to meet two-time defending NCAA champion UCLA for a Sunday, March 6 dual meet.
