Fresh off the plane from Birmingham, Ala., Florida gymnastics coach Rhonda Faehn addressed the media for the final time of the 2014 season on Monday morning.
After a wild finish Saturday at the NCAA Super Six that saw Florida tie for the national title with Oklahoma, she had a clear message to deliver.
“That’s the mark of a tremendous mental competitor — when the biggest pressure is on, they deliver and that’s exactly what she did,” Faehn said of Bridgette Caquatto, who tied her career high of 9.950 on floor to give UF a share of the title.
Faehn admitted there was some confusion as to whether the tie would be broken after the team saw Caquatto’s score had tied the Gators with the Sooners, but she said she and the rest of the team were happy to share the first-place spot on the podium.
Faehn explained the team’s toughest task this season was maintaining health.
“For myself as a coach and our coaching staff, that was definitely the greatest challenge in managing the health of the athletes,” Faehn said.
“Knowing from the very beginning of the season that we lost a tremendous senior class, we had a smaller freshman class coming in and we had sustained injuries that was season-ending for Kiersten Wang, who we were fully expecting to be a huge component of our floor and vault lineup.”
From Florida’s first meet against UCLA to its final meet on Saturday, the lineup was virtually identical with the exception of minor adjustments in gymnast order.
“It was a very delicate situation with our lineups in that they had to stay healthy the entire year,” Faehn said. “We were able to shuffle them slightly when we had other athletes coming back like Jamie Shisler coming back from her injury and her surgery in the fall.”
Shisler competed on vault (9.825) once against West Virginia on March 7, and she exhibitioned four times on floor starting at the end of January.
Another unexpected look for Florida was having junior Rachel Spicer in any of the first three spots on vault, balance beam and floor. Faehn said the junior battled the entire season with severe Achilles tendonitis.
“Literally, I never told anybody, but I was afraid to watch her punch every time she took off on the floor because I thought, ‘What if her Achilles tears?’” Faehn said.
In her sophomore year, Spicer had consistently competed on beam while only competing on vault twice. As a freshman she competed in all but two meets on both vault and beam. She hadn’t competed on floor, before this year, since 2012.
Regular members of almost all event lineups, Mackenzie Caquatto and Alaina Johnson have tasted their second and final NCAA Championship.
“What a way to finish off their careers, winning back-to-back national titles,” Faehn said. “Especially with as many injuries that they’ve had to deal with throughout their careers.”
Florida will return all but three members of its current roster for the 2015 season.
“Of course it’s always taking a step back and reevaluating what we’ll lose and what we’ll gain,” Faehn said. “And restructuring lineups and coming up with all new routines. It’ll be exciting.”
Faehn is now familiar with managing high expectations and pressure put on her team to repeat national titles.
She has her plan ready now that she’s heading into her 13th season coaching at UF.
“Start all over again,” Faehn said. “That’s the best part.”
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Rachel Spicer performs a floor routine during Florida’s 197.525-196.025 win against Arkansas on Feb. 14 in the O’Connell Center. Coach Rhonda Faehn said Spicer dealt with Achilles tendonitis throughout the season.
