Pixie Power: Jenny Rowland And UF gymnasts Have NCAA Title Aspirations
The pixies are back and this time they have everything it takes to win a national championship for the first time since Bridget Sloan and the Rhonda Faehn-coached Gators went back-to-back-to back from 2013-14. When Florida limped into Fort Worth for the 2021 championships, head coach Jenny Rowland was piecing together a lineup that could compensate for a high ankle sprain to Trinity Thomas, who has scored a perfect 10 on eight separate times in her illustrious Gator career.
Had the NCAA Championships been held nine weeks earlier after the Gators had claimed their 13th Southeastern Conference regular season championship, Florida might very well have come home with a fourth national title (UF also won the 1982 AIAW national championship). Without a fully healthy Thomas, the Gators lacked the depth they needed in Fort Worth when they still finished fourth.
The way last year’s season ended has been a real motivator for Rowland and her band of tiny athletes, who defy gravity and live on a dangerous edge. Last year's team had everything it took to win a national title except depth. This year's team, thanks to so many returning All-Americans and infused by talented freshmen, has the depth last year's team lacked and it has upgraded the talent from top to bottom on the roster.
The memory of 2021 isn't going to go away, but it is a reminder that everybody has to work hard every single day to bring home the title that eluded the Gators last year.
“I think it’s always a motivating factor for sure,” Rowland said after the Gators won their opening meet of the season. “I think it’s something this team does a really good job, they use what they need from last season but also it’s really important to start fresh and to attack each day to the best of their ability. We have a strong core and a strong heartbeat from our team last year and they have done a really great job of leading these freshmen and showing them the Gator way.”
That strong core and the nation’s top freshman class gives Rowland depth she didn’t have in 2021. Thomas is back along with six others who have 40 All-America honors between them. Thomas, Alyssa Baumann, Leah Clapper, Nya Reed, Savannah Schoennher, Ellie Lazarri and Megan Skaggs are the foundation for what is perhaps the deepest and most talented roster top-to-bottom in Florida history. The freshman class features four former members of the United States Senior National Team and three who have claimed medals at the world championships.
The team is so deep that the Gators wiped out Northern Illinois, Texas Woman’s University and Rutgers last Friday night at the O-Dome with Rowland making sure she keeps veterans like Thomas, Reed and Baumann rested by limiting their participation to two events. Among the freshmen, Sloane Blakely, a two-time member of the US Senior National Team (2018-19) won the all-around, but fellow freshman Leeanne Wong, the all-around silver medalist at the 2021 World Championships, only participated in two events while freshman Riley McCusker, a member of the gold medal US team at the 2018 World Championships, only worked the uneven parallel bars.
Morgan Hurd, a 2017 silver medalist on the balance beam at the 2017 World Championships, missed the first meet and will miss the entire season after undergoing surgery for a torn ACL.
At last week’s meet, super senior Alyssa Baumann, who answers to “Mom” and “Grandma” when called by her freshman teammates, scored a 9.925 on the balance beam and won the floor with a near perfect 9.975. Clapper scored a 9.95 on the beam to share the win with Blakely. Thomas won the vault with a 9.95 and Shoennherr and Wong won the bars with 9.875s.
It will take contributions from the entire roster Sunday when the Gators, ranked second nationally in the preseason poll and second after one week of competition (197.675 team score), when they face preseason No. 6 Alabama, last year’s SEC championship meet winner and Super Six participant at the 2021 NCAA event. Starting off with an easy win helped Rowland get her freshmen used to the nuances of collegiate gymnastics compared to events on the national and world stage. For a veteran like Baumann, the pace of a quad meet where there is constant activity in all four events (vault, bars, beam, floor) was a good way to get a new season going.
“I think it was really good to start with a meet like this where things are constantly going,” Baumann said. “This was a good to start with a meet like this, a quad meet where things are constantly going and it’s not just all eyes on you. Competing against an SEC school is a little bit different but this is a good first start … I’m really looking forward to a meet like Alabama.”
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