When Bridget Sloan finished her floor routine Friday night, the crowd of more than 10,000 fans who gathered to see Florida (3-0, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) compete against Georgia (2-3, 1-1 SEC) erupted.
Sloan, the rest of the team and everyone in the crowd knew they had just witnessed something nearly perfect.
When the scoreboard finally displayed Sloan’s career-high perfect 10, the stadium almost shook as fans jumped to their feet. As if the instant replay wasn’t good enough, the Gators immediately did it again.
Junior Kytra Hunter followed up Sloan’s floor routine with another 10.
“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.”
The back-to-back performances sealed the victory for the Gators, who had been trailing the Bulldogs up until that final event. Florida won the meet with a final score of 198.05 against UGA’s 196.70.
Florida finished its first three events (vault, uneven bars, and beam) ahead of Georgia with a score of 148.175 to 147.35.
“We started out and we didn’t stick a vault, not one,” 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. “So I think our athletes were a little bit frustrated.”
Faehn attributes the unexpected perfect 10 scores to a series of scores in the floor line up. Starting with Makenzie Caquatto, who came back from an 8.400 on floor at UCLA to a 9.950 during Friday’s meet. She also earned an event win for her 9.950 on beam.
“Having her out there as a senior and then igniting and doing such a great routine really lite everybody else up,” Faehn said of Caquatto’s floor routine.
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 (Spicer) went up and that was the best floor routine I’ve ever seen her do, ever in her life,” 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.
Both agreed the third-largest crowd UF gymnastics has ever seen also played a part in what Sloan described as a top-five moment in her career.
“We had millions of fans,” Hunter said. “It was the most packed we’ve ever competed against.”
The Gators broke the floor school 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 a perfect 10 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 tonight, like when Bridget and Kytra did it.
“They’ll always have that memory of what it felt like to be perfect.”
Follow Erica A. Hernandez on Twitter @EricaAlyssa
Bridget Sloan performs a flip on the balance beam during Florida’s win against Kentucky on Feb. 22, 2013, in the O’Connell Center.
