DAN BOND: Trinity Thomas Is Special, Beyond Special

Photo by Chris Spears

Trinity Thomas is a must see, put down the phone or your beverage, type of athlete.

By DAN BOND GatorBaitMedia.com Don’t get me wrong. Trinity Thomas is special, beyond special. The Gator Gymnastics team puts on a remarkable Friday night competition. There really is a different entertainment value for these Friday meets. It’s the feeling that your team is going to win because Florida has been so dominate recently. Growing up going to football games, you really pull against the other team. In gymnastics you kind of enjoy the show and watching Trinity Thomas is a must see, put down the phone or your beverage, type of athlete. You don’t want to miss a second of what she is doing. I was first introduced to NCAA Gymnastics in 2015. The Championship round is held in Ft. Worth every April. It’s just a few miles west of where I live in Dallas Texas. Florida was going for it’s third NCAA National Championship in a row and I had a front row seat for the Bridget Sloan show. Back then you could get your ticket and sit wherever. Unlike this year. The meet is almost sold out already. Florida was ending the evening on the Uneven Bars. Utah just finished their Vault routine to complete the competition at 197.800. Sloan had already scored a 9.90 on Vault, 9.850 on Beam and 9.950 on Floor. The Uneven Bars last two competitors were Bridget Sloan and Alex McMurtry, another Gator great. They both had fabulous routines, almost perfect for a 9.950 each, giving Florida the win and the title 197.850 to Utah’s 197.800. How incredible! I was hooked! Bridget Sloan would go on to win The Honda Sports Award for gymnastics that year too, her second time. She was SEC Female Athlete of the Year, that says a lot. In four years she won three national championships and when the team didn’t win in 2016, she won the all around national title. Sloan was clutch and she seemed to really get it done in those crucial championship meets. Sloan also did have some strong teammates, future Honda award winners Kytra Hunter and Alex McMurtry on the squad to name just two. For me that’s what put Sloan above Thomas. Trinity puts up those 10s and there are some that say there are too many 10s given now. I think they are good for the sport and get the crowd fired up. No harm, no foul on that, in my opinion. Plus, a little nugget, for comparison: Sloan has six 10s versus Trinity’s thirteen. You hear that one often however Trinity has twenty three 9.975’s vs Sloan’s twelve 9.975 and that’s with the injury year in 2021 and the COVID year in 2020. Definitely Florida was robbed of a national championship in 2020 when they stopped competition. Without that bad ankle injury to Thomas last year, Florida could have won one last year, too The sport has grown so much in those years from the first national championship to now. Bridget Sloan made me a fan. Trinity Thomas is making a lot of people fans and the new Gators like Leanne Wong, she already has two 10s as a freshman. More than Trinity had as a freshman. Sloan Blakely and injured Morgan Hurd will keep Florida loaded and in the hunt for titles the next four years. It’s a great time to be a Gator Gymnastics fan. Whoever the “GOAT” might be.