Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The No. 2 Gator gymnastics team completed 2015 home action Friday with a 197.90 – 193.40 win over Texas Woman's University Friday night in front of a Stephen C. O'Connell Center crowd of 4,236.

The regular season finale brought the final 10.0 for junior All-American Bridget Sloan to complete her share of every Florida event record. Sloan, the defending NCAA uneven bars champion, brought the O'Connell Center crowd to their feet with her 10.0 on the event. She is the first Gator to earn a 10.0 on each apparatus in the program's 43-year history.

Sloan also topped the evening's vault standings at 9.95. It was her first vault performance since she opened the season with a 10.0 on the event on Jan. 11. She severely sprained her right ankle during that meet's floor exercise competition and has been easing her way back into competition over the last five meets. She has competed bars the last five meets, beam the last two and vault tonight.

Another Gator returned from a break due to injury to win an event Friday. Sophomore Claire Boyce sat out balance beam competition last week at No. 1 Oklahoma to rest a leg injury. She was back in the beam lineup tonight, taking her fifth win of the season with a 9.925.

 Senior All-American Kytra Hunter moves into tie for third on Florida's career chart with her 20^th all-around win. It is her eighth all-around win of the season and tonight's 39.675 gives her four totals which rank among the nation's top 10 of 2015. Hunter was nearly perfect on floor, as her 9.975 mark equals her season high for the third time. It was her fifth win on the event this season. She is the nation's top-ranked competitor on the latest GymInfo rankings for both events she won Friday.

Gator Performance Notes:

·         Sloan has scored a pair of 10.0 in each of the last two seasons. Her first came on floor exercise (vs. Georgia/2014) and then on balance beam (at Kentucky/2015). She opened 2015 with a vault 10.0 (at Ball State/2015) and tonight added an uneven bars 10.0. She is believed to be the first collegiate gymnast since Georgia's Courtney Kupets (2006-2009) to post a 10.0 on each event.

·         Florida's uneven bars record of 10.0 is now shared by six Gators, who have turned in the mark eight times on the event. The record was set March 22, 1996 when both Kristen Guise and Amy Myerson turned in the mark. The last uneven bars 10.0 was by Mackenize Caquatto on Jan. 18, 2013.

·         Senior Kiersten Wang equaled her collegiate-bests of 9.925 (floor) and 9.90 (vault) to take a least a share of second of both events tonight. She has turned in her vault best five times in 2015, including each of the last three meets. She set her collegiate floor best of 9.925 earlier this season versus Kentucky.

·        Rachel Spicer equaled her collegiate balance beam best of 9.90 for the third time in her career. She shared second in the final beam standings with fellow senior Hunter.

·         Hunter's floor win is her 27^th, putting her one behind the school-record of floor wins set by Gator Hall of Fame member Melissa Miller (1986-89). Hunter already owns UF's vault record with 20 wins over her career.

Records: Florida (7-3, 5-2 SEC); TWU (5-11).

The Series: Tonight was the first meeting between the two programs. Florida now leads 1-0.

Senior Night Highlights:

Friday was the final home appearance for Gator seniors Hunter, Jamie Shisler, Rachel Spicer and Wang. Three were part of the competitive lineup tonight, with trio turning in at least one season-best mark Friday – Hunter (floor/9.975), Spicer (beam/9.90) and Wang (vault/9.90 and floor/9.925).

Even Shisler got in a final performance in front of the O'Connell Center crowd. Shisler tore her Achilles tendon while warming up floor at the Jan. 11 season opener, so has been sidelined all season. But tonight she stepped onto the floor exercise mat (albeit still in a medical boot on her right foot) and performed the early dance portion of her floor routine – just enough to get in a final “chomp” with the crowd.

This senior class, which has been a part of both of Florida's NCAA title teams, finishes with an unblemished 28-0 record in the O'Connell Center.

Quoting the Gators:

On what she told the seniors after the meet:

“I told them I loved them and that it was just an honor to be able to coach them and just to see them mature. I also told them that we have a lot more to do and that we have even more greatness. Kiersten [Wang] said, 'Yup, the best is yet to come,' and so I said, 'I love that answer.'” - Florida Head Coach Rhonda Faehn

On her confidence level:

“I definitely didn't know if I was going to get it, but every single time I go up for a routine I just want to hit it as strong as possible. Going up there tonight, in my mind I was thinking, 'This is my last chance to really get a 10 at home,' because I've only gotten one 10 at home and beam and vault were both away so in my mind I was thinking, 'All right, if I'm going to get a 10 it's going to be tonight.' And since my parents were here they've actually witnessed every single 10 I've gotten so they're my good luck charms.

“But going up tonight, I just wanted to hit a solid routine. I've been working really hard in practice – the whole team has – on our feet just because that's what we've been getting the most deductions on because we weren't quite used to it yet. Every single one of us tonight as soon as we landed we brought those heels together. Tonight I made sure that I brought my heels together before I saluted.” – junior All-American Bridget Sloan

On Bridget Sloan's 10.0 on bars:

“Now she has them on all four events! I was so excited for her. The last home meet when she came back, I thought that was just a phenomenal routine, but this one, she really worked every handstand, and she held it, didn't she? It was almost like an exclamation point, like you're going to give me this 10 because I'm going to hit every handstand, and I'm not only going to stick my dismount, I'm going to hold it and I'm going to pull my feet together and soak it in. I loved it, and I think it was very well-deserved.” - Florida Head Coach Rhonda Faehn

On her 9.975 on floor:

“We all have our favorite events, and floor is the last event at home. I wanted to put an exclamation point on my meet tonight. Today I felt more relaxed, which isn't always a good thing, but I just picked it up a little on floor and that was the best routine I've done all year. I'm really happy with myself and happy to leave the O'Dome the way I finished off.” – senior All-America Kytra Hunter

On this meet being a tune-up for the SEC Championships:

“We were hoping it would be the lead-up to SECs, but we had to make some adjustments in warm-ups. Kennedy [Baker] was absent from a few of the events. Her ankle kind of flared up a little bit in warm-ups and it was sore, and we just made the decision to not push it so that she could be 100 percent fresh for SECs. It wasn't quite exactly what we were planning on doing, but at the same time, every single competition you don't always know exactly what's going to happen. Somebody could get sick, or something could happen in warm-ups, so I love that they were prepared. When I came over during floor warm-ups, I told Ericha [Fassbender] she was in and she said, 'Absolutely.' They just took it really with ease, so that's always important.” - Florida Head Coach Rhonda Faehn

On the high competition level at next Saturday's SEC Championships:

“The SEC Championship is always a phenomenal competition. It is just loaded. I've often said that I've felt the SEC Championship is sometimes more challenging than qualifying into the Super Six, simply because our conference is so strong.

“It is just intense energy. I love the competition. It's kind of hard because everyone goes at the same time, so it's harder for a fan because it's not alternating like we have when we're at home. At the same time, that makes for an incredible amount of energy, and our team loves it and they feed off of it because they're going one right after another. It's exciting.” - Florida Head Coach Rhonda Faehn

On competing in every event at every meet this season:

“I'm feeling great, it's definitely an improvement throughout all four years. That's life of gymnastics, being able to improve. I think this year physically and mentally I've been my best and most consistent. I worked really hard during the preseason and something I really worked on was my bars. My bars has gotten a lot better, and that's always exciting and it's fun to bring something new to the crowd.” – senior All-American Kytra Hunter

On her last meet at the O'Connell Center:

“It hasn't hit me yet, but I'm focused on finishing the season off strong. I'm really excited for the accomplishments to come. It's going to hit me when spring comes back around and I'm not running out of that Gator head. It's a part of life, these are my four years and we all reach those four years, and sometimes it comes faster than we realize. But for anyone else, just enjoy it. I definitely did.” – senior All-American Kytra Hunter

On how her injury is coming along:

“My foot is actually feeling great. I was a little concerned for vault because, personally, I thought vault was going to be the worst because it's kind of a hard landing, but vault was awesome for me tonight. Overall I feel absolutely incredible.” – junior All-America Bridget Sloan

On the mixed emotions of Senior Night:

“Senior Night. It's one of those meets, I was telling the freshmen, 'I really hate this meet.' It's my least favorite meet of all season, yet I absolutely love this meet. It's the last time we compete in the O'Dome for the season, but it's the last time I'll compete in the O'Dome with our seniors.” - junior All-America Bridget Sloan

National Rank:

Florida – Florida is No. 2 in the March 9 GymInfo rankings. This is the third week the national rankings are based on regional qualifying score.

Up Next:

The Gators look for their 10th league title at the Southeastern Conference Championships, set for March 21 in The Arena at Gwinnett Center in Duluth, Georgia.

Competition is in two sessions – seeds 5-8 compete at 2 p.m. ET and seeds 1-4 compete at 6 p.m. ET. Results from the two sessions are combined to determine team and individual standings.

Tickets for Saturday's meet range in price from $16 to $12 and can be purchased at the Gwinnett Center site.

The 2015 SEC Championships will air tape-delayed on ESPNU (Gainesville/Ocala Cox cable channel 1251) on March 26 at 5 p.m. and again on March 27 at 3:30 a.m. ET and on ESPN2 (Cox cable 27 or 1027) on March 28 at 1 p.m. ET.

The SEC Championships will be streamed live on the SEC Network+, which can be viewed by all SEC Network subscribers. Links for both sessions are below:

2 p.m. session SEC Network+

6 p.m. session SEC Network+ (includes Florida)

The meet will also air tape-delayed on the SEC Network (Cox cable 68 or 1068) five times:

March 24               9 p.m.

March 25               1 a.m.     5 a.m.     Noon

March 30               9 p.m.

Live scoring can be found on GatorZone.com.