Rachel Spicer didn’t perform her floor routine during Florida’s 2013 title run.
But the junior’s 2014 floor routine debut spiced things up for Florida on Friday.
The Texas native, who was recruited as a floor, balance beam and vault competitor, has returned to floor this season after not competing in the event since Feb. 17, 2012.
During Florida’s meet against Georgia, Spicer performed a career-best floor routine (9.975) and warmed up the crowd for the next two Gators in the lineup: Bridget Sloan and Kytra Hunter. Hunter and Sloan went on to achieve perfection, but Spicer’s routine was not far from perfect.
Coach Rhonda Faehn called it the best performance she has ever seen from Spicer, who has been competing strictly on balance beam with a handful of vault events since 2012.
But the road to floor glory was not an easy one for Spicer.
On her first event of the meet, vault, Spicer scored a 9.85. She and the rest of the Gators gave an average vault performance, scoring a total of 49.350 — just .05 higher than the Bulldogs’ vault score.
“I’m sure they knew just how tight it was,” Faehn said of her team’s vault and uneven bars performance, which left the Gators a 10th of a point behind the Bulldogs (98.900-98.800).
“I know that they weren’t happy necessarily with their overall not getting the landings on the first two events.”
While her teammates turned things around with their beam performances, Spicer struggled. The first in the lineup for the event, Spicer posted a team low in any individual event in the meet after a shaky beam performance (9.50).
“I was just like, 'I need to end this night good,'” Spicer said. “After beam it was a little discouraging because no one likes to mess up and kind of feel like you’re letting the team down.”
But on the floor, Spicer showed that she can hold her own with All-American gymnasts like Sloan and Hunter, vaulting Florida to a victory.
“We all have that same goal at end of season,” Spicer said. “So it’s great to be able to be building now.”
Follow Erica A. Hernandez on Twitter @EricaAlyssa
Rachel Spicer performs on the balance beam during Florida’s 198.05-196.70 home win over Georgia on Friday.
