Florida Gators
NC State Triangular
No. 5 Florida Gymnasts Post a 195.95 to Win NC State Triangular
Monday, February 20, 2006 | Gymnastics
The No. 5 University of Florida gymnastics team (11-2, 3-2 SEC) won the North Carolina State triangular Sunday afternoon in front of a RBC Center crowd of 2,412. The Gators posted a 195.95, while North Carolina State (8-5) was second at 191.20. William & Mary (5-8) took third at 186.725. It was UF's second competition of the weekend, as the Gators posted a 196.40 in its win Friday at No. 18 Kentucky.
Sophomore Ashley Reed stepped to the top of the award's stand in each of the three events she competed Sunday. For the second consecutive meet, Reed won the balance beam title from her lead-off position, matching her collegiate-best mark of 9.85 for the third time this season.
She also shared both the vault and uneven bars titles with two other Gator teammates. Reed, Nicola Willis and Samantha Lutz each turned in the afternoon's high uneven bars mark of 9.80. The win was the fourth of the season for Lutz, while Sunday's title was the first of 2006 for Reed and Willis. In the vault competition, Reed shared the day's title at 9.85 with Tiffany Murry and Katie Rue. It was Murry's seventh vault crown in the Gators' eight meets this season, while Rue picks up a share of her first vault title of 2006.
“My body felt better than expected considering that we had a meet on Friday, so I was really happy with that,” Reed said. “I just tried to go into today's meet with some confidence and momentum from Friday. I felt pretty good about all of them (the events she competed). I was really happy with bars because I just wanted to fix some of my mistakes from Friday and I accomplished that.”
Freshman Corey Hartung posted a 9.925 Sunday to take her fourth floor exercise title of the last five meets. Rue was second in the floor standings at 9.825. Two Gators – Breanne King and Savannah Evans - shared third with NC State's Kylah Bachman at 9.80. Rue shared second in the final beam standings with NC State's Leigha Hancock at 9.80.
King picked up her first all-around title of the season with a total of 38.925. NC State's Heather Zolton was second at 38.425, while Bachman took third at 37.875.
UF Head Coach Rhonda Faehn was happy with desire the Gators showed in Sunday's competition.
“I think the team showed a lot of heart in what they did out there, especially considering it was the second competition in three days. We made some changes in the lineup today - fifty percent of our floor lineup was different than what we put up on Friday,” Faehn said. “Our goal was to go out there, hit our routines, not to count a fall and just to be smart about everything. We came away from this meet with a good score and competed solid routines, so I think we accomplished our goals.”
Faehn saw some good things from the Gators on every event Sunday.
“We improved on our start on bars from Friday,” she said. “Even though Corey (Hartung) had an uncharacteristic fall, I felt the team competed more aggressively on that event. I think that carried over to beam. We didn't have any falls on beam. Our first couple of competitors (Reed and Rue) actually did the most aggressive routines among our lineup. We had several changes in the floor lineup. It was great to get Savannah (Evans) in there and have Tracey (Rai) back in the lineup. We finished up strong on vault, which was a good way to go out. The gymnasts were tired and they obviously need a little bit of a break. They performed well and we were glad to come away from the weekend injury-free.”
Florida takes the upcoming weekend off from competition. The Gators return to action when they travel to No. 14 Arizona for a March 3 dual meet in Tucson, Ariz.
| Final Team Standings | ||||||
| Florida at NC State Triangular – Feb. 19, 2006 – RBC Center (2,412) | ||||||
|
| Team | Vault | Bars | Beam | Floor | Total |
| 1. | Florida | 49.15 | 48.80 | 48.875 | 49.125 | 195.95 |
| 2. | NC State | 47.70 | 47.75 | 47.375 | 48.375 | 191.20 |
| 3. | William & Mary | 46.725 | 46.40 | 46.45 | 47.15 | 186.725 |
