Florida Gators

The No. 5 seeded Florida gymnastics team (10-6, 3-3 SEC) advanced to its fourth consecutive NCAA Super Six team final after taking the runner-up spot in Thursday's Session I of the team qualifying competition.

The Gators turned in a total of 196.375 to finish second behind four-time defending NCAA champion Georgia (197.45). All three advancing teams in Session I came from the Southeastern Conference, as LSU took the final advancing spot with its total of 196.30. Those three teams will compete in Friday's NCAA Super Six at 7 p.m. (ET) in the Bob Devaney Sports Center where the national team champion will be determined.

Rounding out the Session I results were Stanford (196.225), Penn State (196.10) and Oklahoma (195.825).

The NCAA Championships' 12-team field is split into two six-team sessions for Thursday's team qualifying round. The top three teams from each of Thursday's two sessions advance to the NCAA Super Six team final.

This is the eighth NCAA Super Six appearance for the Gators (1994, 1997, 1998, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009). The highest NCAA finish for the Gators was second in the 1998 event held in Los Angeles, Calif. Last year, Florida took fourth.

This Florida gymnastics team just seems to keep finding a way to surprise the collegiate gymnastics community. Never mind that a third of its roster is sidelined with injuries. Since this team lost its fourth gymnast to a season-ending injury at the March 13 dual at Utah (seven-time All-American junior Amanda Castillo), these Gators have brought their best to the championship portion of the season. At the March 21 SEC Championships, Florida took third overall despite having just seven available gymnasts for competition as sophomore Alicia Goodwin was out due to a sprained left knee suffered the week of the event. Goodwin returned to the UF lineup for the April 4 NCAA North Central Region Championships, giving the Gators eight competitors for its NCAA portion of the season. The Gators won the region with their best road score of the season, (196.775) to advance to the NCAA Championships.

Today's challenge for Florida was to overcome a slow start in its opening two events, floor exercise and vault. At the midway point of the meet, the Gators were in fourth place at 97.95. The teams in third –sixth were separated by just .250 of a point – making the final two events crucial for all the teams hoping to advance.

Florida came off a third-rotation bye to post an uneven bars total of 49.15 for the second consecutive meet. Junior Melanie Sinclair and Goodwin led UF on bars with marks of 9.875 while junior Maranda Smith also turned in a 9.85.

Balance beam was Florida's final event. The team has had its problems on the event early in the season, but hasn't counted a fall toward its beam total since the Feb. 6 dual at LSU. That streak continued today as Florida turned in its third-highest balance beam total of the season, 49.275, to finish the meet. Freshman Elizabeth Mahlich led UF on the event, matching her collegiate-best of 9.875. The other four marks used for UF's beam total were all 9.85s by Courtney Gladys, Smith, Sinclair and senior Corey Hartung.

Although the Gators had completed their competition on the four apparatus, there was still one more rotation remaining in Session I. The question remained: Would UF's total be enough to advance to the Super Six?

The math was done. LSU needed to average just above a 9.85 on its final event, the uneven bars, to tie UF and Stanford would need an average of 9.825 on the floor exercise to pass UF.

The Tigers and the Cardinal couldn't quite reach those required averages on their final events, as LSU finished just 0.075 behind UF and the Cardinal was behind LSU by the same margin. Just 0.15 separated the No. 2-4 teams in Session I competition.

Pushing to the end is something the UF coaching staff has stressed to the team all season.

“That's what we talked about all season long - to fight to the end and to fight for every little tenth. They did exactly that today,” UF Head Coach Rhonda Faehn said. “We were a little rough on the first two events and definitely weren't as strong as we've been all season on floor and vault. What was amazing is that they did not give up. They had an unbelievable performance on bars and to finish so aggressively on beam was wonderful to see.

“They showed their maturity as competitors today. In past years, a bad event would sometimes deflate the team. But this team has experienced so much this year. We've had to come from behind numerous times. They've learned and they've grown – that's why they didn't let today's slow start frustrate them,” she continued. “I'm just so proud of them.”

Five Gators earned a total of nine All-America honors Thursday and the program will be represented in Saturday's NCAA Individual Event finals in the vault, bars and floor competitions.

Smith earned All-America first-team honors in the all-around and vault. She used a collegiate-best total of 39.45 to take third overall in the Session I all-around competition. She advances to the vault final by tying for fourth at 9.90. It was her sixth 9.90 or better vault mark this season.

Hartung advances to her fourth NCAA floor exercise event final after tying for fourth at 9.875. She finishes her Gator career as a 10-time All-American, second only to the 11 honors earned by Kristen Guise (1993-96) and Chrissy Van Fleet (1997-00).

Sinclair and Goodwin collected All-America first-team honors by tying for fourth in Session I bar competition, which advances them to Saturday's final. This will be Sinclair's third consecutive appearance in the NCAA bar final and the first for Goodwin.

Sinclair also picked up All-America second team honors by tying for sixth in the all-around (39.30). She and Smith tied for sixth in Session I floor competition at 9.85 to earn All-America second-team honors. Mahlich earned a spot on the All-America second team by tying for fifth in Session I beam competition.