Surrounded by the crowd and with the last remaining bastion of UF gymnasts cheering her on, senior Alicia Boren took to the floor mat one last time.
Eleven UF gymnasts walked off the mat for the last time this year when Florida’s gymnastics team was shockingly eliminated from the NCAA Championships at the NCAA Corvallis Regional in Oregon.
There will still be Gators under the lights in Fort Worth, Texas, on Friday.
In the aftermath of a heartbreaker in Corvallis, Oregon, coach Jenny Rowland was shocked.
When sophomore Megan Skaggs fell from the beam during the Gators gymnastics team’s first routine of the night, she had no reason to panic. Her score was set to be washed away from the memory of the crowd as the likely drop score, and the routine wouldn’t suffer from the error.
Before the NCAA Corvallis Regional in Corvallis, Oregon, SEC Freshman of the Year Trinity Thomas said she was “more excited than nervous.”. After a 9.650 on the vault to start the meet, however, it seemed as if she was far more nervous than excited.
There will be no more second chances.
It was during its vault rotation that the Gators’ gymnastics team watched its lead in the SEC Championships dwindle to the LSU Tigers. An outside observer would likely believe that UF was going to spend a lot of time in the gym improving the event it scored the lowest on before it headed off to Oregon for the NCAA Corvallis Regional on Friday.
For Florida, one of the top gymnastic teams in the nation, an eighth-place ranking is unusual.
It came down to the little things in the final vault rotation.
The Gators gymnastics team had a week to reflect on its regular-season conference title.
Florida gymnastics walked into Fayetteville, Arkansas, on the first day of March and walked out as regular-season SEC Champions.
The Gators were nearly perfect at the O’Connell Center during the regular season, with their only loss coming against Georgia. Now, however, they’ll leave it all behind following their victory against No. 25 Penn State on Friday.
It’s what is called an exhibition: a routine performed at the end of the rotation that doesn’t count toward the score.
Alicia Boren clapped her hands in fury moments after she stuck her landing on the vault. With a scream of triumph, she high-fived every teammate and coach that rushed to congratulate her on the routine.
The Gators were riding high as the SEC’s sole undefeated team in conference play when they stepped into the O’Connell Center to face off against Georgia last Friday.
Perhaps it was her family.
The audience at the O’Connell Center gasped in disbelief as sophomore Alyssa Baumann hit the floor.
“Have a great day!”
Normality.
Solutions by The State News
