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Moments before her collegiate debut on floor, Mackenzie Caquatto’s
thoughts were focused on her grandmother.
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“This one’s for you,” Mackenzie Caquatto said to herself.
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The freshman was amid the UF gymnastics team’s annual Link to Pink
meet, an effort to raise awareness for the fight against breast
cancer. A pink sea of more than 8,000 filled the O’Connell Center
stands, all to watch the Gators take on North Carolina State and
Penn State. The scene was especially touching to Caquatto, as she
watched her grandmother push through her own battle with the
disease about six years ago.
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Her grandmother came out of the fight victorious, and Caquatto and
teamates did the same in Friday’s tri-meet, 197.500 win for the
Gators.
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her first-ever college floor performance, she posted up a 9.900,
nabbing second place in the event. Caquatto also reeled in the
number two spot for her balance beam routine and her run on uneven
parallel bars, posting a 9.900 and 9.925, respectively.
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“There was a little more meaning behind this meet,” she said. “We
did it more for [the breast cancer survivors] than for the team,
for the school, for yourself. There was something else back there
that really just dug deep in my heart and helped me do as good as I
did.”
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The freshman is slowly coming into her spot as a regular
all-arounder for the Gators, as the coaching staff is phasing her
into new events with the notch of every meet in this season’s
belt.
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“She’ll definitely be an all-arounder,” coach Rhonda Faehn said.
“We took her out of vault tonight so that she wasn’t overwhelmed
that we added her on floor.”
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However, Caquatto wasn’t the only addition to floor Friday night.
Another freshman made a surprise appearance on the lineup that
wasn’t listed for the event when the meet kicked off at 7 p.m.
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Following the completion of balance beam, freshman all-arounder
Alaina Johnson was pacing off to the side, separate from the
team.
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One of the assistant coaches approached her after her beam
performance, and asked her if she wanted to finish the meet as an
all-arounder.
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Originally, the coaching staff wanted to rest Johnson in
preparation for next Friday’s meet against Alabama. Focusing
heavily on her split-second decision, Johnson wanted to be sure she
was doing the best thing for her body.
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was actually trying to decide if I was going to do floor or not,”
Johnson said. “I was trying to decide if my body could handle doing
all around this meet and the next two. You always have a bunch of
energy, of course, during competition. So it was hard for me to
decide, but I decided that I had enough energy.”
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Johnson stepped onto the floor as the lineup’s last competitor and
pulled out the event’s highest score at a 9.925.
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Her floor performance, combined with her bars and vault score of
9.950, propelled her as the meet’s top all-arounder. The title was
her first all-around title in her college career.
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Despite Ashanée Dickerson’s usual all-around dominance, Friday she
rested from floor exercise for the first time this year.
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But just because she sat out on one event, didn’t mean Dickerson
skimped on taking another by storm.
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After Dickerson stuck her landing on balance beam, one judge held
up the number that the crowd is always urging for — a perfect
10.
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“My heart was beating really fast and I just started jumping up and
down,” Dickerson said. “Rhonda told me to go out and wave to the
crowd.”
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Though the second judge gave Dickerson a score of a
still-impressive 9.950, her total beam performance earned her a
9.975. The number ties Dickerson for the second best score of all
time for the Gators.
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The combination of the team’s stellar performances all welded
together to nab the Gators a final point tally of 197.500 — a
season best for the squad.
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“The team just seems to be getting better and better,” sophomore
Marissa King said. “To get a 197.5 is phenomenal — unbelievable to
be honest. I’m just kind of speechless about how well we did
today.”
