The No. 3 Florida gymnastics team (1-1, 0-1 SEC) dropped its 2013
Southeastern Conference season opener Friday at No. 8 LSU (2-0, 1-0 SEC) in
front of a Pete Maravich Assembly Center crowd of 4,074. The Gators turned in
the same total as last week, 196.575, but LSU outscored them with a 196.875 to
take the first win over the Gators in the last 10 meetings. Friday’s meet is
the start of nine consecutive dual meets for Florida versus teams ranked in the
nation’s preseason top 25.
Tonight’s meet will air tape-delayed on SUN Sports Jan. 19 at
5 p.m.
Going into the final rotation, the Gators held a 0.25 edge
over the Tigers, but knew they needed a strong final rotation on balance beam
to hold the lead as the Tigers were finishing on their top event. Last week in
their season opener, the Tigers turned in the nation’s high event total of
49.525 on the floor exercise. Misses by freshman Bridget Sloan and
senior All-American Marissa King forced Florida to count a fall toward
its final beam total of 48.775. The Tigers didn’t go as big as last week on
floor, posting a 49.325 Friday, but it gave them the final winning three-tenths
margin.
The Gators last counted a fall in their beam total at the
2011 NCAA Championships.
Sophomore Kytra Hunter, making her first all-around
appearance of the season, won that event title at 39.675. The total was just
off her collegiate-best of 39.725 set when she claimed the 2012 NCAA all-around
crown. For the evening, Hunter collected two other event titles. In her first
vault performance of the season, Hunter used a team season-high 9.95 for the
win. Hunter also is the defending NCAA vault champion and is the only Gator to
win two NCAA event titles in a single season. She also matched her
collegiate-best on the uneven bars at 9.90 for the second consecutive week to
share that event crown with LSU’s Sarie Morrison.
Hunter quickly put off her individual performance, pointing
to the team’s obvious learning opportunity from tonight’s performance.
“This
has put a bad taste in our mouths and this is not the way we wanted to start
our season,” Hunter said. “But it is a stepping stone and it needs to be a step
that we learn from as we look toward the end of the season.”
“The
team is definitely going to learn that no matter what is going on, we have to
keep pushing. And no matter if we have a fall, bobble or anything, it is a
little thing,” she continued. “We can fix it and it not the end of the world.”
Junior All-American Mackenzie Caquatto used a near
flawless set to claim the balance beam title with a team-season high 9.95.
Hunter was second on beam at 9.90.
The evening’s floor exercise crown went to LSU’s Lloiminica
Hall at 9.95. Hunter was second at 9.925.
There is much to gain from this loss, Florida head coach Rhonda
Faehn said
“Obviously
tonight will be a very positive learning experience. Coming here, we knew that
LSU is a talented team and against any team in the SEC, especially on the road,
you really have to hit if you expect to walk away with a win. For us to finish
up with two falls on beam - that isn’t going to get it done.
“There
were some definite high points at this competition and at the same time, there
were things that were eye-opening moments for quite a few of the athletes. They
need to learn from this and take this as a step to go back into the gym and
make a few adjustments here and there and just get better from it.
“There
were some excellent things like Macko’s (Mackenzie Caquatto) beam which was
incredible. And Kytra (Hunter) was incredible everywhere. Overall we made
mistakes that I think were from holding back and that’s what bothers me. I
would rather have them make mistakes by going too hard and being aggressive.”
Other
Gators with top three finishes Friday included senior All-American Ashanée
Dickerson, who shared second on vault at 9.90. Junior All-American Alaina
Johnson and Sloan shared third on bars at 9.85.
