The
No. 3 Florida gymnastics team (6-1, 2-1 SEC) lost its first meet of the season
Friday in front of a Coleman Coliseum crowd of 12,457, as defending NCAA
champion and No. 6 Alabama (6-0, 3-0 SEC) used the nation’s second-highest
total of the season of 197.725 to take the win over UF’s 196.90.
The
nation’s top two team totals of the season have been posted in the Gators’ last
two competitions. Florida set the 2012 national high total of 197.775 last week
in its home win over then No. 1 Arkansas, No. 24 Maryland and Bridgeport.
Tonight, the Crimson Tide posted the nation’s second-highest total of 2012 with
their winning tally.
The Gators come away tonight
with a very solid road score, which is needed for seeding for the NCAA
championship portion of the season. But UF Head Coach Rhonda Faehn said
the little mistakes added up for the Gators tonight.
“It was definitely not
our best night. There were areas where we were a little flat or a bit sluggish.
We didn’t get some of the landings and the team knows that,” Faehn said.
“They’re human and that’s normal after coming off such a high from last week.”
The Gators weren’t
quite as sharp on their opening rotation, the uneven bars, as a week ago as steps
on dismounts dinged their scores. UF posted a team bars total of 49.225.
Sophomore Mackenzie Caquatto won the event title for the second
consecutive week, this time using a 9.90 to take her eighth bar win of her
career. Alaina Johnson shared second on the event with UA’s Ashley
Priess and Ashley Sledge at 9.875.
The Tide started out
big on the opening rotation, posting the nation’s leading vault total of 49.60.
That total was boosted by big marks from its later portion of the lineup as
Diandra Milliner won the event with her first 10.0 on vault, while Marissa
Gutierrez was second at 9.95 and senior All-American Geralen Stack-Eaton returned
from a week off due to a concussion to post a 9.925.
Florida earned a 49.25
on the vault as steps on the landing hurt their potential score. Freshman Kytra
Hunter led UF on the event with her mark of 9.90 while Johnson turned in a
9.875.
On floor exercise,
Florida was led by Ashanée Dickerson’s 9.875. Hunter also posted a 9.85
and Amy Ferguson opened up the floor set with a 9.825 as the Gators
tallied a 49.10 on the event. While the Gators were on floor, the Tide was
posting the nation’s third-highest balance beam total of 49.425. Three Tide
performers earned 9.90 beam marks – Milliner, Sarah DeMeo and Priess.
Faehn challenged her
Gators to finish strong when they went to beam for their final event.
“What I loved is the
heart they showed on balance beam,” Faehn said. “I challenged them on their
last event to show their heart and they did just that.”
The Gators went
six-for-six on their finishing event and turned in its second-highest beam
total of the season (49.325). Dickerson used her second-consecutive 9.90 on the
event to earn a share of her second beam title of the season and the 10th
of her career. Marissa King anchored the beam set with a 9.875 while Randy
Stageberg and Johnson each earned 9.85.
Performing
in front of a big crowd against one of the nation’s top teams is an experience
Faehn thinks will help this team later in the season.
“It’s
going to be a great learning experience for them. We walk away tonight with a
really solid road score,” Faehn said. “We obviously have things we are going to
work on when we get back home and that’s fine because we have nowhere to go but
up.”
