When sophomore Bridget Sloan finished her floor routine Friday night, a crowd of more than 10,000 fans who gathered to see Florida (3-0, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) compete against Georgia erupted.
Her official score was not calculated yet, but as the sophomore’s floor music — “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes — concluded, there was no rest in the O’Connell Center.
Sloan, the rest of the team and everyone in the crowd knew they had just witnessed perfection.
When the scoreboard displayed Sloan’s perfect 10, the arena almost shook.
Then, the Gators did it again. Junior Kytra Hunter followed up Sloan’s floor routine with another 10.
The back-to-back performances sealed the victory for the Gators, who defeated the Bulldogs (2-3, 1-1 SEC),198.05-196.70.
“After she went and after she landed her last pass, it was just like an explosion in the O’Dome,” Sloan said. “Competing together, we feed off of each other.”
Florida finished its first three events (vault, uneven bars and beam) leading Georgia by 0.825.
“We started out and we didn’t stick a vault, not one,” coach Rhonda Faehn said. “And that’s kind of what we expected.”
Florida claimed overall wins in all three events except for bars, which Georgia won with a 49.600 — much to Faehn’s surprise.
“Bars was a little bit of a surprise because that’s our best events,” Faehn said. “Our athletes were a little bit frustrated.”
Faehn attributes the unexpected perfect scores to a strong start on floor, beginning with Mackenzie Caquatto, who came back from an 8.40 on floor at UCLA to a 9.95 during Friday’s meet. She earned an event win with her 9.95 on beam.
“Having her out there as a senior and then igniting and doing such a great routine really lit everybody else up,” Faehn said.
The next Gator to continue the streak was Rachel Spicer, who had struggled on vault (9.825) and beam (9.500) earlier in the meet.
“Then Spicey went up, and that was the best floor routine I’ve ever seen her do,” Faehn said. “Everyone just kind of caught on fire from there.”
Sloan and Hunter, who tied for the all-around win with a score of 39.70, now join Caquatto as the only current members of the roster to have scored 10s in their college careers.
The Gators broke the school floor record of 49.725, previously set in 2013 at the NCAA Super Six finals, with Friday’s 49.875.
“Our first meet we didn’t do so hot on floor and it just goes to show you how much depth we have,” Hunter said.
“I still believe that this is better than what we were last year.”
The last time two Gators put up back-to-back perfect scores was March 22, 1996, when Amy Myerson and Kristen Guise scored perfect 10s on uneven bars.
“Honestly I never would have thought I’d get a 10 on floor,” Sloan said. “Floor is a good event for me, but I’m really pushing for a 10 on beam.”
Although Faehn has never coached back-to-back perfect 10 scores on any event, she has coached and achieved the feat herself in her personal gymnastics career.
“When I did it the first thing I did was look to the crowd because gymnasts love to perform and to do that for everyone in the stands,” Faehn said. “I felt that [Friday night], like when Bridget and Kytra did it.
“They’ll always have that memory of what it felt like to be perfect in that moment.”
Follow Erica A. Hernandez on Twitter @EricaAlyssa
Bridget Sloan and Kytra Hunter celebrate following Florida’s match against Georgia on Jan. 24 in the O’Connell Center.
