My Florida Chomps Georgia with Season High Score

Florida dominates Georgia with an NCAA high score 198.125 over the Bulllogs 196.825. It was alumni night as Florida welcomed back past gymnasts that helped set the standard for an elite program period to help mark that special occasion the Gators introduced the Spurrier leotard. Spurrier was 11-1 versus Georgia coaching the football team in his career. The Leo has a large jeweled Gator logo on the front and a football strap design on the back:

”Just have to truly thank coach Spurrier for the support that he gives the Gators and especially women's athletics. He's been a huge supporter of gymnastics. He's one of the first people to reach out to me after a big win and congratulate me and that alone says a lot. He's committed, he's invested and truly cares. So really, really grateful for his support to the Gators”

Six gymnast compete with Florida having the home rotation of vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. The five highest scores count. On to the recap:

Vault: (Last week: 49.450. Average: 49.325, 4th in the nation)

-Anya Pilgrim: Yurchenko 1 ½ Slight hop on the landing- 9.850

-Ellie Lazzari: 1st vault of the season. Yurchenko 1 ½ Stepped forward- 9.775 (The dropped score)

-Ly Bui: Yurchenko 1 ½ Long vault! Small hop- 9.925

-Sloan Blakely: Yurchenko 1 ½ Big vault. Legs together.- 9.90

-Leanne Wong: Yurchenko half on. Pike off. Very difficult.- 9.925

-Selena Harris-Miranda: Yurchenko 1 ½ Nails landing! 10?- 9.950

Score: 49.550 Highest score in NCAA this season. Florida leads by .400 after one rotation.

Uneven Bars: (Last week: 49.025. Average: 49.175, 10th in the nation)

-Sloane Blakely: Legs together . Double front dismount. Small hop- 9.825 (The dropped score)

-Anya Pilgrim: Springboard mount to high bar. Twist landing. Stuck- 9.90

-Riley McCusker: Nice handstands. Small hop on landing- 9.875

-Skye Blakely: Springboard mount. Backflip, twist ant the end landing. Stuck- 9.90

-Selena Harris-Miranda: Over rotated on low bar. Double layout landing. Stuck- 9.850

-Leanne Wong: Nice low to high bar. Double layout landing. Hop- 9.875

Score: 49.400 Florida leads by .475 after the 2nd rotation.

Beam: (Last week: 49.475. Average, 49.488, 1st in the nation)

-Skylar Draser: Back handspring. Switch leap, 180 degrees/ 1 ½ twist dismount. Stuck- 9.90

-Sloane Blakely: Front flip to back flip. Side dismount. Stuck- 9.95

- Anya Pilgrim: Side Candle mount. Back handspring. Slight wobble. Back handspring side dismount. Stuck- 9.950

- Victoria Nguyen: Twisting back handspring into a back handspring to a full turn. Backflip dismount. Stuck- 9.950. The Gators get a rare 9.950. Three in a row!

-Leanne Wong: Running springboard mount. Falls down to the beam. 2nd week in a row with an issue. Front twisting dismount. Stuck- 9.625 (The dropped score)

-Selena Harris-Miranda: Side split beam mount. Perfect triple series backflip. Switch leaps into a Gator Chomp! Front twisting landing. Stuck.- 9.925

Score: 49.675. Another season high score in the NCAA for the Gators. Florida leads Georgia by an insurmountable .900 after the third rotation.

Floor Exercise: (Last week: 48.475. Average, 49.075, 17th  in the nation)

-Victoria Nguyen: First pass (The long runs from corner to corner) Front flip. Hop out of bounds. Second pass: 1 ½ twist layout. Stuck- 9.50 (The dropped score)

-Anya Pilgrim:  First pass: 1 ½ flip into twisting flip. Second pass: Front tuck. Double layout. Hop.- 9.850

-Taylor Clark: First pass: Double layout. Stuck landing. Second pass: Front tuck. Hop- 9.90

-Sloan Blakely: First pass: Double flip twist. Stuck. Second pass: 1 ½ twist flip.- 9.925

-Leanne Wong: First pass: Double layout. Stuck. Second pass: Back twist landing. Stuck- 9.925

-Selena Harris-Miranda: First pass: Front tuck into a double back flip. Second pass: Back twisting. Landing stuck- 9.90

Score: 49.500 Four 9.9 or higher scores on the Floor for the first time this season. Florida wins the Meet 198.125 to 196.825

Florida is definitely settling in after three weeks of competition. Despite a case of the flu running around the team this week the Gators turn in a 198 plus score. The first 198 in the nation and the benchmark score for supreme excellence. This is the type of score that wins national championships.

Coach Rowland said after the meet:

“It was a rough week. We had a lot under the weather athletes throughout the week. Several missed a day here or two and at the same time, it's coming back. It's trusting your training. Everybody has been prepared. They've done what they've needed to this fall in order to come out, even though they may have missed a practice or two, to come out and just trust their training. So extremely proud of the confidence, of the resilience of the unknown, the uncertainty of them being able to step up and be ready. We didn't even call lineups last night. The message was, if you train an event, be ready to warm up an event because we didn't know who was going to feel well enough to compete. So extremely proud of everybody. I had a very enjoyable evening, and I think the Gators looked loose, calm. We will take a recovery day or two and get back into the gym on Monday to keep refining the little details here and there that we know we still have to improve upon.”

With Florida sweeping the All-Around this week. Selena Harris Miranda- 39.625, Sloane Blakely- 39.60 and Snya Pilgrim- 39.55. The sky is the limit. UF has yet to have 2024 olympic team member Leanne Wong have a great meet. The team continues to improve week to week and next week is a three-way meet at West Virginia with #5 Utah Sunday February 2nd.