When No. 1 Florida (15-2, 6-1 Southeastern Conference) hosts the 2013 NCAA Regionals on Saturday, history will be on its side.
Since 1982, Florida has hosted the event 11 times, finishing in first five times while taking home second on each of the other six occasions.
The Gators expect to continue that trend this weekend.
“It’s cool to compete in our own home, but it’s also going to bring more jitters because it’s six teams — top two teams go into regionals — and we can’t have that mentality of ‘Oh, we’re going to make that top two,’ because anything can happen at any given day,” Kytra Hunter said.
Florida is unbeaten when hosting the Southeast Regionals during coach Rhonda Faehn's tenure — capturing first in 2005 and 2008.
That postseason success has also been found during the regular season. UF is 31-3 at home since 2008. Its only losses came against Southeastern Conference rival Georgia in 2008, a second-place finish in the 2010 NCAA Semifinals and a fifth-place finish in the Super Six.
“Having regionals [at home] is excellent,” Faehn said. “We’ve hosted obviously a few times since I’ve been here and it has always been a positive experience.”
Historically, a handful of Florida’s highest team totals are produced when it hosts. Florida’s team total of 197.525 in 2008 was its second highest mark over the last eight years.
But competing at home has other added benefits.
Faehn said the familiarity the gymnasts have performing with the equipment at home is an aspect of competing at home that is largely overlooked.
Per NCAA Regionals rules, each team will experience two resting periods throughout the competition. When Florida completes its opening rotation on vault it’ll have waiting period until performing on uneven bars.
“The girls actually enjoy that a little bit,” Faehn said. “It gives them time to get their grips on and not have to rush getting over there.”
The final rest period will come prior to floor, where Florida ranks first in the NCAA with an average score of 49.47.
But Faehn is confident in her team’s ability to adjust.
“They’re use to it from years of having regionals, nationals and SECs,” Faehn said. “We had three byes, but this will be the first time this year that we encounter byes so that’ll be just a little bit different.”
Florida opens up competition at 6 p.m. at the O’Connell Center on Saturday.
Sophomore Kytra Hunter performs her beam routine in a dual meet against Ball State on Jan. 4 in the O’Connell Center. Hunter won the all-around title at the NCAA Regionals on Saturday.
