The high scores came rapid fire when the Gators’ gymnastics team hit the bars: 9.950. 9.900. 9.950. 9.975.
If its opponents were waiting for anything less than stellar, it would never see it.
That rotation, good for UF’s best in school history and the current 2019 record on the bars, helped propel the No. 3 Gators to a convincing victory over the No. 17 Kentucky Wildcats 197.675-196.650 at the O’Connell Center on Friday.
The team improved to 3-0 in both regular season and SEC play with the victory and drew its 10th largest crowd in school history with an attendance of 8,615 people.
The first rotation was one of Florida’s weaker vault runs of the season so far. Freshman Trinity Thomas had the highest score with a 9.875, one of only three Gators in the rotation to break the 9.8 mark. Freshman Savannah Schoenherr was the drop score for the second straight home meet, scoring lower than her home vault debut with a 9.325 after failing to land her routine on her feet.
Kentucky, however, started the meet off with a solid bars rotation. The Wildcats scored a 9.900 courtesy of gymnast Cally Nixon, and just one of their gymnasts scored below a 9.8.
Kentucky had the lead at the end of the first rotation 49.225-49.050.
The second rotation was precisely the opposite. In what was by far UF’s best event all year, no gymnast on the Gators’ squad scored below a 9.9: Thomas had the highest with a 9.975 while Savannah Schoenherr had the drop score with a 9.900.
“It was hot,” coach Jenny Rowland said of the bar routine. “It’s contagious. We were actually talking about that before the meet started today, just building off each other.”
With an overall average performance on the vault by the Wildcats, Florida easily retook the lead 98.775-98.300.
The Gators’ third rotation improved upon its solid lead, with two scores in the 9.9 range on the balance beam from Thomas and junior Amelia Hundley, respectively. The drop score of 9.325 came from sophomore Alyssa Baumann, who fell off the beam at the beginning of her routine and stumbled another time.
The Wildcats did well on the floor, with Kentucky star Mollie Korth landing a 9.925 on her routine and Sidney Dukes contributing with a 9.900. Despite their performances, the Gators’ stellar second rotation still put the Wildcats behind significantly, heading into the third rotation down 148.125-147.550.
The final rotation was another great one from Florida. Aside from the 9.600 drop score from freshman Sydney Johnson-Scharpf, every Gator gymnast once again struck at the 9.9 mark or above, with Thomas and senior Alicia Boren scoring the highest with 9.925s. Kentucky couldn’t strike above the 9.9 mark on any of its floor routines, so the Gators had secured the win before their last gymnast, Rachel Gowey, started her routine.
The Gators’ will head to Norman, Oklahoma, next Friday to face off against the No. 1 team in the nation in the Oklahoma Sooners. Despite the huge meet looming ahead, Rowland insisted that the team doesn’t plan on changing anything once they get back to practice this week.
“It’s just ‘get back to the gym and back to the grind’,” Rowland said. “It’s one step at a time, one day at a time.”
Follow River Wells on Twitter @riverhwells and contact him at rwells@alligator.org.
Senior Alicia Boren scored a 9.950 on the uneven bars and a 9.925 on her floor routine in the No. 3 Gator's win over Kentucky on Friday.
