Faehn ready to see what her gymnasts can do, including one surprise returnee
Friday, January 7, 2011 | Gymnastics, Softball, Scott Carter
In a few hours, the Florida gymnastics team opens its season at home against Nebraska.
Click here for a detailed preview of the competition. The Gators are ranked No. 3 by GymInfo; Nebraska checks in at No. 10, so expect a competitive event.
I'm heading over to the O'Connell Center for my first gymnastics event – no, I'm not competing on the parallel bars – to watch a gymnast who wasn't even expected to be here: Florida's Maranda Smith.
Smith was surprisingly granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA over the summer and had to pack her belongings in California back up – just a few months after leaving town – and return to Gainesville, enrolling in graduate school while completing her gymnastics career.
Check out GatorZone.com for a feature story on Smith in the next couple of days. As for the Gators, head coach Rhonda Faehn expects those butterflies in her stomach as usual later this evening.
“You have to have that, a healthy amount of nerves, going into every competition,'' Faehn said. “We have a lot of new routines, a lot of new faces … I want to see a lot of energy and carry that over from event to event.''
Florida is the defending SEC champions and returns five gymnasts – Smith, Alicia Goodwin, Elizabeth Mahlich, Marissa King and Ashanée Dickerson – who have a combined 13 All-American honors.
Meanwhile, one of the Gators' top newcomers is Mackenzie Caquatto, a three-time U.S. Senior National Team member who won silver at the 2010 World Championships in October in the Netherlands.
The chance to see how they all mix is what Faehn is looking forward to most.
“It's a starting point,'' she said. “We have a good idea of how they'll perform, but it's nice to be able to actually see it happen and have it as a starting point so we'll know what to tweak, how to change the lineup, what skills need more work.''
