Gators 'Good' Enough to Move On
Saturday, April 18, 2015 | Gymnastics, Chris Harry
FORT WORTH, Texas -- That Rhonda Faehn was praising junior Bridget Sloan at the post-meet news conference Friday should come as no surprise. As for the circumstance surrounding that praise? That was a little out of the ordinary for Florida's gymnastics coach.
Sloan, simply put the best collegiate gymnast in the country, miss-timed her tumbling pass in UF's first rotation Friday at the NCAA Championships opening session. Her score was a 9.675, which turned out to be the second-lowest floor score of the entire session.
It was Sloan's reaction to the mishap that caught Faehn's attention.
“She didn't get down on herself ... and our athletes fed off of that,” Faehn said. “They could see she was not affected by it. I like to say the team goes as Bridget goes because of her dynamic personality. When they saw when she wasn't responding in a negative way, they were like, “All right, here we go!' ”
And off the Gators went, indeed.
They even withstood a sub-par effort from All-American Kytra Hunter on the vault and a couple low tallies to start on beam with a collective effort that was good enough for a score of 197.475, which tied Utah for first place. After a match of cards, Florida was awarded the top spot of the session and advanced UF -- along with the Utes and Stanford -- into Saturday night's Super Six national championship round at Fort Worth Convention Center Arena.
Junior Bridget Sloan reacts after a 9.95 on her bars routine.
Florida, the two-time reigning national champion, is alive in its quest to be just the third program to capture three straight NCAA crowns.
When freshman Alex McMurtry and Hunter ended the night with 9.9s on the beam, whatever drama or anxiety that had been hovering over the Gators huddle was gone.
“I know you're not supposed to focus on scores, but when the first two went up it was a little bit shocking,” McMurtry said of the 9.65 and 9.80 posted by Claire Boyce and Rachel Spicer, respectively, to open the rotation. “It just makes your routine that much more important. We've been training a lot under pressure and I've been trying hard to be really solid on beam. The equipment was a little shaky and that made it all the more important to be really tight and really sharp when you land.”
She nailed the landing, as did Hunter, who responded with a primal scream that put an exclamation point on UF performance. Make that achievement. As in the fourth straight Super Six and 10th in Faehn's 13 seasons. 
“It was definitely a lot of joy,” Hunter (left) said. “Ending on the beam is always rocky ... and being the anchor and finishing strong was a highlight for me.”
An emphatic one, actually, after a team-wide performance Faehn knew was not up to the Florida standards.
“For us, we did good,” she said.
That was as complimentary as Faehn would get, but she had no problem seeing the orange-and-blue lining in the outcome. Namely, the fact the Gators advanced without putting their A-game on display.
The resiliency of her athletes definitely got her attention. Like Sloan going 9.925 on vault, 9.95 on bars and 9.875 on beam after her floor goof. Or Hunter answering her vault miscue with a 9.9 on bars and that 9.95 on floor that pushed her into a first-place tie for Semifinal I all-around competition.
Junior Bridgette Caquatto's two routines (bars and floor) scored 9.9s. Freshman Kennedy Baker, in her first NCAA meet, went 9.850 on bars and 9.9 on floor. And McMurtry, also an NCAA rookie, in addition to her meet-high 9.9 on beam, scored 9.9 on vault and 9.85 on bars.
As for Sloan, once the floor was behind her, she held nothing back. Her teammates fed off that.
“You're not going to be perfect every single time, so it's how you react to things,” Faehn said. “We had little miscues here and there, but I love that we maintained our energy level, did not get affected mentally or physically and finished out really strong on beam with heavy pressure heading into that event.” 
Sloan seconded the notion, with an eye toward Saturday's round. The one for the hardware.
“We didn't have that great of a meet for us. We had some errors here and there,” she said. “But after it was over, Rhonda could tell in our faces that we're going to kill it Saturday. She looked at me and I was like, 'You don't even have to say anything.' I am so ready for [Saturday].”
If nothing else, maybe a stumble here and balance issue there was a good thing for Friday. Especially if happening on Friday gets them out of the way Saturday.
“We reached our goal today -- to advance to the finals,” McMurtry said. “I'm excited because I know the Gators can do so much better.”
