After finishing in third place at the SEC Championships on Saturday, the No. 5 Gators gymnastics team is hoping to redeem itself at the NCAA Regional Championships on April 7. The field for the event was announced on Monday afternoon by the NCAA.
Florida was placed in the University Park Regional along with No. 8 Washington, No. 17 Arizona State, West Virginia, Penn State and New Hampshire. The Nittany Lions are hosting the regional, with the top-two teams from the meet guaranteed a spot at the NCAA Championships on April 20 in St. Louis.
UF has won six consecutive regional titles and has reached the NCAA Championships 35 times in the meet’s 36-year history.
Coming off a team total of 196.825 and a third-place finish at the SEC Championships on Saturday, the team is eager to prove its worth on another postseason stage. Though it didn’t take the conference crown, Florida still posted wins in the SECs on vault, bars, beam and floor. Looking ahead, coach Jenny Rowland made it clear the team would not let one meet’s results determine the rest of its postseason.
“How we react and how we handle this situation going forward is what is going to define us,” Rowland said in a release.”They will take it a day at a time, one meet at a time and one routine at a time. We've got three more meets to go and the Gators are going to finish strong.”
Follow Alana Gomez on Twitter @alanaa_gomez and contact her at agomez@alligator.org.
Florida's gymnastics team is heading to Pennsylvania for the regional round of the NCAA Championships.
