Too Close for Comfort in Tight Meet at Georgia

It was a battle between two of the youngest teams in the SEC. Florida with the number one recruiting class and in Georgia third. UF had five freshmen scoring on 25 routines and Georgia had freshmen scoring on 44 routines this season. You knew it would be a question of who would be consistent throughout the meet. Six gymnasts participated with five scores counting. Road rotations were uneven bars, vault, floor exercise and beam.

On to the recap:

Uneven Bars (Last week: 49.350, Average 13th in the nation at 49.233)

-Sloan Blakely: Nice start but a big step forward on the landing and almost fell- 9.575 (Dropped score)

- Victoria Nguyen: Small hop on the landing. Nice routine after falling last week and returning to UGA after transferring. I'm sure she was nervous.- 9.825

- Gabby Disidore: Straight hand sands, stuck landing.- 9.875

- Anya Pilgrim: Full twist dismount, stuck landing- 9.875

- Ellie Lazzari: Legs really stuck together. Sticks her full twist landing.- 9.90

- Leanne Wong: Small leg separation. Tiny hop- 9.875

Score 49.350, Lead by .200 after one rotation

Vault (Last week: 49.400, Average 9th in the nation at 49.258)

-         Skylar Draser: Yurchenko 1 ½ Small hop- 9.90

-        Ellie Lazzari: Yurchenco 1 ½ -9.825 (Dropped score)

-        Anya Pilgrim: Yurchenko 1 ½ Stuck landing. A 10 here?-9.925

-        Sloan Blakely: Yurchenco 1 ½ hop forward 9.850

-        Leanne Wong: Great vault!- 9.925

-        Danie Ferris: Big hop forward. Almost missed the table (That’s scary)-9.850

Score 49.450, Lead by .200 after 2 rotations

Floor Exercise (Last week: 49.275, Average 11th in the nation at 49.400)

-        Skylar Draser: First pass, back double tuck. Nice leaps. Second pass double Pike, clean- 9.80 (Dropped score)

-        Victoria Nguyen: First pass, front double to a split. Connection bonus here. Second pass, 1 1/2 front layout twist.- 9.90

-        Morgan Hurd: First pass front twist to back flip. Second pass, back double Pike.- 9.90

-        Anya Pilgrim: First pass front flip to back flip, lean forward. Second pass back flip- 9.850

-        Sloan Blakely: First pass, under rotated double Pike. Second pass 1 1/2 front full twist- 9.825

-        Peyton Richards: First pass double layout flip nailed it! Second pass 1 1/2 back flip: 9.825 It was nice to see Peyton back on the floor this week.

Score 49.300, Lead by .200 after three rotations

Beam (Last week: 49.525, Average 2nd in the nation at 49.392)

-        Skylar Draser: Stuck back flip on beam. Slight hop on landing- 9.850

-        Sloan Blakely: Front flip to back flip combo. Small hop on landing keeps this from a 10.- 9.925

-        Anya Pilgrim: Back handspring layout, smooth. Sticks landing. First 10 of the season?- 9.850

-        Ellie Lazzari: Triple series back flip. Slight balance check. Sticks side dismount- 9.925

-        Victoria Nguyen: Springboard mount. Back flip bobble. Blind backflip dismount, small hop- 9.775

-        Leanne Wong: Front springboard mount. Falls on beam! Finishes her routine with a nice triple combination and landing. Shakes off the fall.- 9.30 (Dropped score)

Score 49.325

    Florida survives in Athens, 197.425 versus 197.300 despite Georgia having its season high score. Georgia's Lily Smith wins the all around with a 39.60. Anya Pilgrim is second at 39.50. Anya is putting up some great routines however not cracking that 9.9 barrier enough to get to the next level. Florida has had 18-9.9’s or higher the last two meets. Only nine total in the first two meets. So they are getting there. Still no perfect 10’s on the season. I think that will get the team going in the right direction once that is out of the way. Possibly when they return to a sold out home meet against #7 Arkansas next week.