Bridget Sloan’s 2013 campaign ended with the Southeastern Conference Freshman Gymnast of the Year award.
This year is shaping up to be just as good.
After Florida’s road win against Auburn on Friday, Sloan was named SEC Gymnast of the Week.
“I really feel like I’m back,” Sloan said. “It shows how much hard work you put in obviously throughout the entire preseason, but then at the meet, you really let it shine.
“At Auburn, I really did have just a great meet, and it was awesome to have them look at how I did and award me for my accomplishment.”
Sloan improved her scores in all four events from Florida’s opening meet against UCLA to Auburn. Against the Tigers, she matched her collegiate best on vault with a 9.95.
Coach Rhonda Faehn is happy with Sloan’s strong showing so far this season.
“She’s had such tremendous success last year,” Faehn said. “But she’s trying to not only continue that success this year but to be such a great team leader and continue to push herself.”
Faehn said Sloan was not content with her entire performance despite her all-around win with a score of 39.70. Sloan’s 9.925 on the balance beam — her lowest score of the meet — was a point of question. Faehn said Sloan identified what she had been marked off for and immediately started thinking of how to correct it.
“She just drilled it [Monday],” Faehn said.
“That one area she kept going over and over on her own and it just shows me that she really has that inner drive to continue to get better.”
Faehn said she was for the most part happy with how her entire squad overcame the challenge of the fast turnaround with only two practices between the UCLA and Auburn meets.
“We only had one practice to vault and one practice to do floor, which is one area where we really needed to make some improvements — especially from the UCLA competition,” Faehn said. “I was thrilled with the way we came out and performed at Auburn. Again, there were little mistakes here or there, but it didn’t effect the overall result.”
UF has a little more time to settle in and practice this week before the first home meet of the season against Georgia on Friday.
“I know that our team feels they’ve gained some experience from the first two meets,” Faehn said.
“They’re gaining more confidence.”
With falls in both of UF’s first meets, Faehn said there is no plan in place this early in the season to prevent that from happening in the O’Connell Center on Friday.
“We never sit there and say we can’t have any falls because they’re human and this is what the whole season is for, is to work the bugs out and to gain experience,” Faehn said. “Yeah it’s wonderful to be able to have everyone hit all the time, but that’s just not really reality.”
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Bridget Sloan performs a flip on the balance beam during Florida’s win against Kentucky on Feb. 22, 2013, in the O’Connell Center.
