Florida's Melanie Sinclair Named SEC Gymnast of the Week
Tuesday, February 24, 2009 | Gymnastics
University of Florida junior All-American Melanie Sinclair (Orlando, Fla.) is the Southeastern Conference Gymnast of the Week, the league office announced Tuesday. This is the third SEC Gymnast of the Week honor of her career and she is the first Gator to pick up the honor in 2009.
Sinclair was awarded the SEC Gymnast of the Week after she turned in first or second place finishes in each event in Florida's win last Friday over then No. 8 Alabama. Sinclair claimed the all-around title with a Florida season-best total of 39.55. It equals the third-highest total of her Gator career and it was her third all-around win of 2009.
Sinclair opened the meet with a pair of apparatus wins. She claimed her fifth uneven bars title of the season with a mark of 9.95– matching the evening's high mark in any event. She and teammate Maranda Smith shared the evening's vault title with Alabama's Morgan Dennis and Kayla Hoffman, as all turned in marks of 9.90.
| Florida's SEC Gymnasts of the Week | |
| Name | Date |
| Melanie Sinclair | Feb. 24, 2009 |
| Amanda Castillo | March 18, 2008 |
| Amanda Castillo | Feb. 19, 2008 |
| Melanie Sinclair | Jan. 15, 2008 |
| Melanie Sinclair | March 20, 2007 |
| Amanda Castillo | Feb. 27, 2007 |
| Ashley Reed | Feb. 6, 2007 |
| Corey Hartung | Feb. 7, 2006 |
| Ashley Reed | March 1, 2005 |
| Savannah Evans | Feb. 1, 2005 |
| Erinn Dooley | March 16, 2004 |
| Erinn Dooley | March 2, 2004 |
| Orley Szmuch | Jan. 20, 2004 |
| Orley Szmuch | Feb. 11, 2003 |
| Orley Szmuch | Jan. 29, 2002 |
| Hilary Thompson | Jan. 30, 2001 |
| Chrissy Van Fleet | Feb. 22, 2000 |
| Chrissy Van Fleet | Feb. 15, 2000 |
Sinclair was second in the evening's floor competition (9.875) and shared second in the beam standings at 9.85.
She leads UF this season with 11 event titles. Sinclair holds the following spots in the Feb. 23 national rankings: No. T-11 in all-around (39.295 regional qualifying score) and No. 17 in vault (9.875 RQS).
Next up, No. 7 Florida meets its second-consecutive top-10 opponent when it heads to Athens, Ga., to face four-time defending NCAA champion and current No. 1 Georgia for a sold-out meet on Feb. 28. Competition begins at 4 p.m. in the Stegeman Coliseum. ESPN2 will air the meet tape-delayed on March 8 at 11 a.m.
