(GYM) ***CLOSED***Gymnastics 2023 - 2024***CLOSED

Florida 198.150
LSU 197.950

No. 5 Florida Upsets No. 2 LSU; Claims At Least Share of SEC Title - Florida Gators

SEC Champion, Baby! The worst the Gators can do is share the SEC regular season championship. UF can win the SEC Championship outright with a win at Kentucky on Sunday, March 3. Kentucky lost on the road at Arkansas. Who thought this would be possible coming into the season and especially so after losing Riley McCusker on top of Trinity Thomas and Kayla DiCello's deferral year decision? Honestly, I didn't see this coming.

How impressive it is to be the only team to improve in every week of the season. The good news is there is still more improvement possible. As CJR said in the post meet interview, "there is still more in the tank".

The improvements are easy to see:

Vault - improved our lineup replacing Ellie with Victoria who responded with a 9.900. Ellie just wasn't getting it done on vault to maintain her position in the lineup.

Bars - Not likely to have three 9.800 routines counted in which all three had issues with the low bar. If those were the more typical 9.850 - 9.950, the Gators would have blown out the tiggers. Victoria was dropped and she usually scores 9.900+-. I also thought Sloane had a 9.900. I don't know what the judge that gave her a 9.850 saw for a further deduction that the other judge and I didn't see.

Beam can be better with Ellie doing her usual high scoring routine. UF did what LSU couldn't do. The Gators hit 5 scores while the tigger's Mr. Hyde showed up in Gainesville. For me, this was the must win event of the meet for the Gators while needing some help from the tiggers on beam.

Floor! We're back to normal after scoring 49.600 last week in Missouri and 49.700 against LSU. UF will need to get someone back into the lineup after Payton's injury. There are three possible who have a chance to practice themselves back into the lineup, Lori, Morgan, or Skylar. I hope Payton isn't lost for the season, but she was carried off the floor with a right foot/ankle/leg injury.

A shout out to Leanne Wong for her 10.0 on floor. This gave her a gym slam and she became just the 15th collegiate gymnast to accomplish the feat:

(1) Gators Gymnastics on X: "Perfection #GoGators | #WeChomp https://t.co/WhkU0l6JKc https://t.co/4XtWqvDY01" / X (twitter.com)

For those who haven't seen the score yet, Oklahoma now has the season high score having scored 198.675 at home. Good thing the Gators still have more in the tank.

 

LSU has the best floor lineup in the country. I had no problem with their scores last week at home or in Gainesville this week.

My keys to the meet for a UF win:

Split vault and bars - actually tied on bars - check.
Win beam - check.
Score 49.600 regardless of who wins floor - check.

Book it, LSU will be in the national finals. If UF continues to improve, the Gators will be there too.

I was also close on my Savannah Schoenherr prediction of 9.900 on bars and 9.850 on vault with actual at 9.875 bars and 9.850 vault. She had a 9.9+ bars going until she missed her landing. Having watched her the last three weeks, UF could have used her this season. She is physically the old Sav again, just needed a 6th year change, I guess.

 

Top Friday Night Scores Around the Nation:

Oklahoma 198.675 - Season Highest Score
Florida 198.150 - Gators Season High
Alabama 198.075 - Back-to-Back Good Weeks
Utah 198.075 - Red Rocks Season High
LSU 197.950 - Best Season Road Score

 

Enjoy this from Tiger Droppings Rant, their in and after meet discussions:

#2 LSU at #5 Florida Gym Meet Thread/ LSU Falls to Florida- Scores 197.950 | Tiger Rant (tigerdroppings.com)

Many think they would have won without home cooking judges. I didn't see that at all as both teams were graded to performance on each event for the most part. There is a minority who can admit LSU's shortcomings. It's also incredulous to complain about judging because their athletes are underperforming to their potential. On paper, LSU is a national champion contender, but they have to find consistency of excellence at home and on the road.

I can say with certainty that LSU has been scored fairly as I have taken the time to watch their last three meets focusing on how the judges were grading them. The only judge cooking I've seen in their last 3 weeks is when Haleigh Bryant got a 10.0 on her beam to get her gym slam at UGALY. She scored a 9.950 at home last week with a better beam performance. I had her beam at UGALY as a 9.900. She didn't stick her landing while leaning backwards and then didn't hold her landing 1 second before saluting, two .05 deductions.

 

Apples & Apples Comparison of UF 2023 & UF 2024 Through 7 Meets:

2023----------------------2024

NQS - 197.780-----------197.600
AVG - 197.857-----------197.607
High - 198.350-----------198.150

What Jenny Rowland has done with the 2024 Gators is incredible. I don't want to jinx anything, but as the Gators continue to improve, CJR looks like the front runner for SEC Coach of the Year.

 

Trinity had an off beam routine, a couple of balance checks.

 

Read she looked real good on bars. Trinity will get the rust knocked off, has not performed in 9 months and more meets to come before June.

 

Sunday Best Meet Involving Top Ranked Teams:

2:00 pm PT Cal at UCLA Link Pac 12

I'm interested to see how California does on the road at UCLA.

EDIT:

Before I get up tomorrow morning to read about the poor job college judges are doing, I'm going to beat College Gym News to the punch tonight. Final Score at UCLA:

California 198.4000
UCLA 197.7750

I'm filled with incredulity with Cal's 198.4000. I've seen Cal perform and I don't see the golden bears with the type of lineups with the capacity to score as high as 198.4000.

I can't say with certainty yet that it's biased west coast judging, but I'm going to say it is highly likely until somebody posts the meet on YouTube for the rest of the nation to see as it was only shown on the PAC 12 Network. I'm thinking this inflated score will draw the attention of College Gym News which has been demanding coaches and judges do better.

While at it, I feel similarly about Oklahoma's 198.675 score this weekend.

From College Gym News:

• • Records: California – new team all around record (198.4), tied 2nd highest team bars score (49.65), new 2nd highest team beam score (49.725), new 2nd highest team floor score (49.675), new individual all-around record (39.825 – eMjae Frazier), tied 4th highest individual all-around score (39.7 – Mya Lauzon), tied individual beam record (10.0 – Mya Lauzon), tied individual floor record (10.0 – eMjae Frazier)
  • Records: Oklahoma – new team all around record (198.675), tied 3rd highest team bars score (49.7), tied team beam record (49.8), tied 4th highest team floor score (49.7), tied individual beam record (10.0 – Ragan Smith)
• • NCAA Records: Oklahoma – new 3rd highest team all-around score (198.675), tied 3rd highest team beam score (49.8)

 

Good, UF could have used Nya on vault and especially so on floor. Glad she got to finish her career on a good note.