The Gators have already made a deep footprint in the college gymnastics realm this season.
The squad opened against Nebraska last week with the nation’s highest score of opening competition and shot up from No. 3 to a No. 1 national ranking.
“Last year, we started on a road meet and we lost to Oklahoma, so it’s a very different start to the season,” senior Alicia Goodwin said. “But we can never get comfortable with where we are. The minute you say you’re good enough, you’re going to take five steps backwards.”
The team beat the Cornhuskers 196.925 to 194.95, the second-highest season opening score for the Gators.
Florida will tackle its second home meet tonight against No. 16 Kentucky with a new addition to the roster. Freshman Jade Wiggins, of Lake Mary, started practicing this month after graduating from high school in December. At 4-foot-10, she is the team’s shortest gymnast, and her major competition areas include the balance beam and uneven parallel bars.
“She has a polish. You’ll notice she’s more like a ballet dancer,” coach Rhonda Faehn said. “She needs a little bit more time and training under her belt with us, but I may put her out there on exhibition for beam — start her out slow and let her build her confidence.”
Wiggins is one of the team’s five freshmen on the roster. Freshman Alaina Johnson had an impressive start to her college gymnastics career against Nebraska, earning the second-highest scores for an all-around debut at UF. Johnson also earned the SEC Freshman Gymnast of the Week award as a result of last week’s performance.
Freshmen Brittney Noble and Mackenzie Caquatto also got a taste of competition last week.
“I look at how strong our freshman class was last year, but they didn’t start out that way,” Faehn said. “They grew into it. The first half of the season, they were still deer in the headlights, you know, making mistakes here and there and forgetting floor routines and things like that. Where this class, they’re experienced.”
Faehn said the lineups will change to allow athletes to rest when needed because of the spread of talent the team has this season.
Looking back at the film from the meet against Nebraska, Faehn said she was impressed with the amount of stuck landings the Gators had, but they need to focus on the smaller details heading into the rest of the season.
“Florida gymnastics has always had the power and the difficulty and the intensity out there, but one area we really felt that we needed to improve upon was the polish and the artistry,” she said. “I think we saw a nice glimmer of that [last] weekend. We know we can do better and we know we have a greater potential.”
