Gators' Performance Perfect Way to Enter Postseason
Saturday, March 9, 2019 | Gymnastics
A week after claiming the program's first SEC regular-season championship, No. 3 UF put the finishing touches on a strong regular season with arguably its most complete meet of the year in a win over No. 25 Penn State on Friday night. The Gators' 198.025 tied for their highest score in 2019 (Oklahoma on Feb. 1 was the other).
Florida (7-2) turned in a clean performance against the Nittany Lions (5-8), with no falls or major hops on dismounts. The only exception was junior Amelia Hundley's fall on floor exercise, but her 9.125 was dropped as the lowest score. The Gators had the three highest individual scores on every event but the uneven bars.
"I mentioned taking a bigger jump this spring break and having us make a big turnaround and a big change in whatever it needed to be, whether it was outside of the gym, inside of the gym, we need to pay attention to the details, and that definitely showed tonight," senior Alicia Boren said.
Despite the Gators' high ranking and SEC Championship, vault has been the one chink in their armor all season. Entering Friday, they'd cracked the 49.3 mark just twice and scored below 49 twice. Coach Jenny Rowland has tweaked the lineup every week in search of production. Because UF vaults in the first rotation during home meets, it often found itself having to play catchup.
This week, Rowland might have discovered the ideal lineup. Sophomore Megan Skaggs made her season debut on vault and led off with a career-best 9.875. Rowland said Skaggs would've been in the lineup sooner, but she wanted to protect her surgically repaired ankle and ease her into it.
"The right time is when the athlete comes to me and says, 'Jenny, I feel great. I'm ready to go.' I trust my team a lot, and when they say, 'I'm ready to go,' it's go-time," she said.
Junior Sierra Alexander followed Skaggs with another 9.875, also a career high for her. Freshman Trinity Thomas posted a 9.95, the highest score by a Gator this year. Boren anchored with a season-best 9.925. The Gators' 49.475 was their highest this season by more than a tenth of a point.
"Their fierceness, the fire, the focus that this team had really showed from the first vault," Rowland said.
Uneven bars has been a strength for Florida all season, though it had struggled of late. After a school record 49.725 against Kentucky and a 49.675 against Oklahoma, the Gators failed to score higher than 49.425 in the next four meets. They returned to form a bit against Penn State, recording a 49.475.
UF wrapped up the night with a 49.550 on the balance beam and a 49.525 on floor. Skaggs made her season-debut on floor as well and scored a 9.9.
The biggest negative of the meet came after the final routine. Boren, in her Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center swan song, brought the crowd to its feet before her routine started. The setup was there for her to turn in her first perfect 10 on floor and record a storybook ending to her home career. She performed a near-flawless version of her crowd-favorite floor routine, a journey of sorts through the past four decades of music.
When it ended, the crowd erupted, her teammates rushed the floor and one judge quickly threw up a 10. The other judge, somehow not caught up in the emotion that filled the arena, gave her a 9.95, and Boren had to settle for a 9.975. A sizable portion of the crowd of 6,805 booed the judge when her score came in and again when she walked out of the arena.
Boren doesn't hold any animosity against the judge and takes it as an opportunity to get better.
"If they took something, then there was something wrong," she said. "I don't want to get a 10 if it's not deserved. It just wasn't the time."
Thomas also scored a 9.975 on floor en route to her fifth all-around win (39.750). Boren (39.725) and Skaggs (39.55) also established new career-high all-around totals.
The Gators have two weeks to prepare for the SEC Championship meet in New Orleans on March 23. NCAA Championships competition begins two weeks after that, and UF figures to be one of the favorites to win it all. But Rowland doesn't look at it that way.
In her mind, Friday night was the first round of the postseason, and her team passed the test.
"What this team showed tonight is what I know we're capable of doing and then some," she said. "I know this team's going to take a lot away from tonight, and we're going to keep moving on. We still have a lot more to go."
With more performances like this one, they could have a lot of more hardware to take home too.
"I think this is what we needed to give us the confidence and what we needed to get further and get through the postseason," Boren said.
