From underdog to top dog, the UF gymnastics team will be playing a different role Saturday at the NCAA North Central Regional Competition in Iowa City, Iowa.
It's the most important meet of the season so far because it decides which teams and individuals will advance to the NCAA Championships on April 16-18.
The top two teams and top two all-around competitors who are not on an advancing team from each regional proceed to the national championship competition.
The rotation of events will be different for the Gators. UF has a bye in the first rotation and starts on floor exercise before moving to vault, uneven bars and ending on balance beam.
The Gators were overlooked at the Southeastern Conference Championships because of their thinner lineup, but they still managed a third-place finish.
And while the league championships have no direct impact on the upcoming meet, the team is feeding off its success.
"SECs was certainly, in our point of view, pretty much like a win," said Courtney Gladys, who believes the confidence garnered from the SEC Championships will roll over into the regional competition.
It may be a bit harder for the other teams in the North Central Region - UCLA, Minnesota, Denver, Iowa State and Iowa - to ignore the Gators this time considering UF heads in as the top-ranked team in the grouping, ranked No. 6 in the country.
"I feel like any meet we go to, everyone's like, 'Oh, Florida, we want to beat them,' so of course (the other teams) are going to want to get us," Alicia Goodwin said.
Goodwin, who sprained her knee before the SEC Championships and was pulled from the lineup, will most likely be back in the bars and beam lineups in the regional competition. Despite being taken out of the lineup at the last minute, Goodwin said she doesn't feel any added pressure to make up for missed action.
No. 7 UCLA, by rank, is the stiffest competition the Gators will face, with the next-highest ranked team being No. 18 Minnesota.
Facing UCLA is nothing new for the Gators, who have faced the Bruins in regional competition two of the last three years. UF coach Rhonda Faehn, a UCLA alumna, earned All-America honors as a gymnast there.
Faehn believes the Gators still may be able to use injuries as a way to divert attention from their ranking.
With no more than eight possible gymnasts competing out of a 12-woman roster, consistency shouldn't be an issue with the possibility of five gymnasts competing all-around.
"We all wish we had the other four girls," Elizabeth Mahlich said.
Faehn said the gymnasts healthy enough to compete are fully committed and said the other teams at the regional competition may be thinking, like at the SEC competition, that they have a great shot because UF is beat up.
"We proved them all wrong at SECs," Faehn said.
She also realized the top seeding in the regional doesn't bring about any extra points.
"You can never step into a regional championship thinking you've got it in the bag," Faehn said. "The No. 1 seeds everywhere are feeling, 'We still have to do our job.'"
