Florida Gators
NCAA Championships - Semifinal II
Gator gymnasts head to Saturday's NCAA Super Six after sharing semifinal win
Saturday, April 19, 2014 | Gymnastics
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Florida gymnastics team advances to the NCAA Super Six team final after tying Alabama for first in Friday's second semifinal of the NCAA Championships' opening day of action. The result is a key step for the Gators, who look to defend their 2013 NCAA team title in Saturday's Super Six, which begins at 7 p.m. ET in the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex (BJCC) Complex. The event is streamed live on ESPN3.
Florida trailed the Crimson Tide by 0.075 heading into the final rotation. Both teams finished the meet on strong events – Florida on floor and Alabama on vault. The Gators' 49.425 on floor pulled them into a tie with the Tide at 197.65, who posted a 49.35 on vault.
For collegiate gymnastics team scoring, six gymnasts compete and the five highest marks are used toward the team total. The tie was broken by adding the dropped score for each event to the final team total. Florida's six-score total of 236.35 was just higher than Alabama's (236.10), which gives Florida the Olympic rotation for Saturday's NCAA Super Six team final.
Florida wins its semifinal session for the fourth time in the program's history (also won session in 2013, 2008 and 2004). That total equals Florida's third-highest total ever in NCAA Championships' competition. Joining Florida from semifinal II in Saturday's Super Six are Alabama (197.65) and Nebraska (197.10). Utah (197.025), UCLA (197.00) and Penn State (194.825) rounded out the second session's results.
Advancing to the Super Six from Friday's opening semifinal are Oklahoma (197.50) and the other two Southeastern Conference teams in the field – Georgia (197.30) and LSU (197.10).
GATOR PERFORMANCE NOTES:
· This is the first meet of the season a Gator has not won the all-around. Alaina Johnson nearly became the third consecutive Gator to win the NCAA all-around, as she was second to Alabama's Kim Jacob by 0.025. It is her highest NCAA all-around finish of her career, as she took fourth in 2012.
· Florida advances to its 12th NCAA Super Six team final (1994, 1997, 1998, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014). The Gators' claimed their first NCAA team title at the 2013 event in Los Angeles, Calif.
ALL-AMERICA HONORS CAREER RECORD:
Johnson's four All-America honors earned tonight pushes her career total to 14 - a school record. The previous record of 11 All-America honors was set by Kristen Guise and equaled by Chrissy Van Fleet. Both Guise and Van Fleet are recent inductees into the Gator Athletics Hall of Fame (Guise/2012; Van Fleet/2013).
GATORS EARNING ALL-AMERICA HONORS:
Six Gators earned a total of 13 All-America honors Friday.
| 2014 Gator All-Americans | |||
| Name | Event | Session II Score | All-America team |
| Claire Boyce | Floor | 9.90 | Second |
| Bridgette Caquatto | Bars | 9.900 | Second |
| Mackenzie Caquatto | Bars | 9.925 | First |
| Beam | 9.90 | First | |
| Kytra Hunter | All-Around | 39.475 | Second |
| Floor | 9.90 | Second | |
| Alaina Johnson | All-Around | 39.600 | First |
| Vault | 9.900 | Second | |
| Bars | 9.925 | First | |
| Beam | 9.900 | First | |
| Bridget Sloan | Vault | 9.950 | First |
| Bars | 9.950 | First | |
| Floor | 9.90 | Second | |
| Blue denotes gymnasts advancing to April 20 NCAA Individual Event Finals | |||
QUOTES
Opening Statement
“I agree with what Sarah said, that there's no doubt tonight was, well, what an atmosphere. It was complete charged in that arena and our athletes loved that and fed off that. No doubt we made mistakes tonight, but it's all about advancing and tomorrow is a new day - we are excited for that opportunity.” – Florida head coach Rhonda Faehn
On the challenge and tough competition this session presented
“Knowing which session we were going to be in, we were excited because we always feel like our team rises to the occasions when it's a challenging situation. It was nice to be on the competition floor with Alabama, Nebraska, UCLA and Utah and it was a great competition tonight. It's going to be even more exciting tomorrow — seems like it was a dog fight in the first session as well.” – Florida head coach Rhonda Faehn
On rising to the occasion on the bars
“Bars are definitely one of our strong events and all of us, we do a good job of staying calm and doing or own thing. We just focus on what we need to and if we do that we are good.” – Florida senior Alaina Johnson
On coming back from injuries
“I'm definitely excited about being back in all-around. Having injuries has definitely been a struggle. I have never been out of competition for such a long time, but my teammates and coaches supported me 100-percent.” – Florida senior Alaina Johnson
WORTH NOTING
· Florida advances to its 12th NCAA Super Six team final (1994, 1997, 1998, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014). The Gators' claimed their first NCAA team title at the 2013 event in Los Angeles, Calif.
· Florida's uneven bars total of 49.55 is the highest ever for the Gators in NCAA Championships competition and the fourth highest among all teams in NCAA Semifinal competition.
· Florida's 49.30 is the fourth-highest ever for Gators on balance beam in NCAA semifinal competition.
· Sloan's 9.95 equals the highest ever for a Gator in NCAA Championships' uneven bars competition. Sloan's 9.925 on vault equals the seventh-highest for the Gators in NCAA Semifinal competition.
· Mackenzie Caquatto and Johnson's 9.90 on balance beam equals the third-highest ever for a Gator in NCAA semifinal competition.
· Claire Boyce opened Florida's floor set with a collegiate-best 9.90. Her previous best of 9.875 was turned in on three other occasions.
· The Caquatto sisters are the first pair of sisters to compete for the Gators since 1984 but they are the only sisters to both earn All-America honors. Mackenzie earned her fourth and fifth NCAA all-around honors tonight (bars, beam) and Bridgette appears on the uneven bars All-America second team.
· Florida has advanced to the NCAA Super Six nine of the 12 seasons under Rhonda Faehn.
UP NEXT:
NCAA Super Six team final is set to begin at 7 p.m. ET in the BJCC. ESPN3 will stream the meet live.
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| @UFCoachRhonda (Rhonda Faehn) |
| Florida in NCAA Championships ● Semifinal II Final Team Totals | |||||
| April 18, 2014 ● BJCC Complex | |||||
| Team | Vault | Bars | Beam | Floor | Total |
| Florida | 49.375 | 49.550 | 49.300 | 49.425 | 197.650 |
| Alabama | 49.350 | 49.375 | 49.350 | 49.575 | 197.650 |
| Nebraska | 49.200 | 49.100 | 49.450 | 49.350 | 197.100 |
| Utah | 49.300 | 49.275 | 48.975 | 49.475 | 197.025 |
| UCLA | 49.275 | 49.250 | 49.075 | 49.400 | 197.000 |
| Penn State | 48.925 | 48.650 | 48.075 | 49.175 | 194.825 |
| NCAA Championships ● Semifinal I Final Team Totals | |||||
| Oklahoma | 49.325 | 49.250 | 49.350 | 49.575 | 197.500 |
| Georgia | 49.350 | 49.300 | 49.200 | 49.450 | 197.300 |
| LSU | 49.350 | 49.225 | 49.175 | 49.350 | 197.100 |
| Stanford | 49.025 | 49.300 | 49.250 | 49.025 | 196.600 |
| Michigan | 49.300 | 49.325 | 48.350 | 49.450 | 196.425 |
| Illinois | 49.075 | 48.725 | 48.800 | 49.200 | 195.800 |
| Shading denotes teams advancing to April 19 NCAA Super Six team final | |||||
2014 NCAA Championships
Competition Rotations
Super Six – Saturday, April 19 @ 7 (ET)
| Rot. | Vault | Bye | Bars | Beam | Bye | Floor |
| I | Florida | Oklahoma | LSU | Georgia | Alabama | Nebraska |
| II | Nebraska | Florida | Oklahoma | LSU | Georgia | Alabama |
| III | Alabama | Nebraska | Florida | Oklahoma | LSU | Georgia |
| IV | Georgia | Alabama | Nebraska | Florida | Oklahoma | LSU |
| V | LSU | Georgia | Alabama | Nebraska | Florida | Oklahoma |
| VI | Oklahoma | LSU | Georgia | Alabama | Nebraska | Florida |
| 2014 NCAA Championships | ||||||||||
| April 18-20 • Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex (BJCC) • Birmingham, Ala. | ||||||||||
| Semifinal II | Super 6 Team Final | Semifinal I | ||||||||
| April 18 | April 19 | April 18 | ||||||||
| 1 | Florida | Oklahoma | 2 | |||||||
| 4 | Alabama | Florida | Oklahoma | LSU | 3 | |||||
| 5 | Utah | Georgia | 6 | |||||||
| Alabama | NCAA Champion | LSU | ||||||||
| 8 | UCLA | Michigan | 7 | |||||||
| 9 | Nebraska | Nebraska | Georgia | Stanford | 10 | |||||
| 15 | Penn State | Illinois | 11 | |||||||
