Scoring has been stricter..judges are being reviewed now..so ...probably less 10s. Like I posted..looking forward to @ETGator1 reviews
Leann Wong wins the All Around with 39.725, Sloane Blakeley 2nd at 39.500. Had a big lead going to the floor exercise, but almost blew the match and only beat Michigan State 196.675 to 196.650. Only scored 48.650 on the floor. That's normally our most dependable high scoring events. Brubach and Lazzari noth messed up, forcing us to count a 9.175. Can't have that going forward. Lots for Coach to digest in regards to future rotations.
Yeah, that was what I was saying. At least one of those who fell likely won’t be in that role when she does floor. We don’t count that fall and even count a 9.8 and we’re 197.3 or 197.4. Not an ideal first night but nothing to panic over, hopefully see a week 2 jump next meet.
I don't understand why Jenny turned down an invitation to compete at Sprout's Farmers Market quad meet. We are the only team in the top 8 that is not there. It's such a great opportunity to perform on ABC prime time and experience for our gymnasts to perform in an electric and high pressure atmosphere against top competition. You see Oklahoma, and now LSU at all the big invitational meets every year. Oklahoma schedules two more meets every year than Florida. This year we have 10 meets to Oklahoma's 12. And Kindler has her team peaking at the right time every season. Oklahoma is always very tough to beat at the NCAAs.
After seeing the meet in person, tge new layout looks very congested. It doesn't flow from one apparatus to the other in a circular fashion, have to skip across beam to get to bars from vault. Not much room for team to gather at the one end. Definitely a jumbled layout for a quad, should have more room for dual meets. Lots of changes on the fly tonight. Wong in the massage back support immediately after every rotation. I think that the lowest score we posted since 2019. Anyone know the injury status on Draser? I had not seen anything other than Kayla and Skye on the injury list. Also, from me seat it looked like Skye would have had a great bars score if the mat was closer. She landed right on the edge and had to take a step back. Really surprised to see her tonight, she looked different on the bars than everyone else. Her stands were pretty straight with a long hold and her release moves looked really good. That should be a real advantage moving forward especially considering bars was something we really needed some improvement on if I remember correctly.
I too noticed the landing mats didn’t seem to always be right for bars. I agree with the congestion on a quad meet with this event arrangement.
The administration wanted to provide a premium seating experience for the $ supporters and they succeeded in doing so. Criticism of the apparatus layout is warranted. The floe is off. Maybe it will be better in a dual meet. I am a newbie when it comes to performances and will defer to the expert here-ETGator1 and look forward to his analysis. I was upset with our performance on the floor. Are we gonna miss Bluffstone here who by a freak accident is done for the year? She is so much fun to watch. And during the preseason was nailing her floor routine. Are we going to be at a disadvantage against LSU who is domineering on the floor? I was pleased with Ly Bui on the vault. So young and so talented. A. Pilgrim deserved higher scores IMO although she was off on the vault. L. Wong is a treasure! Selena is a great addition. So needed. Surprised at the turnout. Expected more. Go Gators.
My take on the meet as a spectator, NOT a gymnastics expert: First, while I'm super happy to have been able to watch on SEC+, the production value was worse than our floor performance. Completely missed Ly's vault. Scores and team icons were screwed up. The announcers were fine, but overall production lacked. So the elephant in the room was obviously floor exercise. It wasn't a good rotation. However, obviously Jenny will use Anya, Selena and/or Ly going forward. With any of the three in the lineup, we likely win going away and get comfortably above 197. I expect Jenny was just experimenting with the lineup, knowing we have scores to drop. We will not see the same lineup next week. Vault was good (at least what they showed of it), especially considering it was the first meet. As Dr Sam said, having 7 (I think it was) gymnasts doing vaults with 10 start values is quite a luxury. Bars were good. Hopefully Riley's fall was a one time thing and not a product of her injuries. Sloan really brought it on bars. Beam was excellent for a first meet! The commentators mentioned that beam is Jenny's favorite/most emphasized event. I like that. It seems that over the last few years, beam has become our strongest event...which is awesome since it's the one teams typically struggle with the most. As for individuals, what can you say about Leanne? She seemed in mid-season form last night. She is special. I love her more upbeat floor exercise. It seems to me that Sloan has trimmed down a little and is in excellent shape. I expect big things from her this year. Anya and Victoria were solid. Victoria might have been a little off, but I have confidence she'll be solid this year. I wish we had seen more of Selena and Ly. I know we will as the season progresses. I'm excited to see them work into the rotations. BTW, I think Taylor Clark is special on floor. Simply beautiful routine last night. All in all, I'm happy we (barely) got the win. Even though records don't mean much in the grand scheme, you don't want to lose a meet like this. I think this team has the potential to compete with the best of the best, but it might take a while to get the lineups set. One question for the board: Why does Jenny often put some of her stronger performers first or early in event lineups? It seems that most teams put their best last so that scores can build up to them. Maybe she's trying to have the starting score a little higher? It seems to me that's a little unfair to the performer that has to go first as they'll never get the score they deserve.
Views from watching at home in front of my 65" big screen tv: VAULT - I've read that tough scoring on the vault has replaced the tough scoring on the bars from 2024. We'll see if the lower vault scores show up throughout the season. To get the top scores, gymnasts have to get height/distance off the beam and get sticks. UF has too many 10.0 start values to allow anyone who doesn't in the lineup for anything other than an exhibition. -Anya Pilgrim 9.80 deserved between 9.85 to 9.90. The judges took a .2 deduction for a hop forward. -Leanne Wong looked great with just a bunny hop. Her 9.875 was too low. I was thinking 9.925 before the score was announced. -Ly Bui was allowed to start her vault before her time. None of us watching at home got to see the vault. Ly is an outstanding bars worker too. -Danie Ferris's 9.95 was perfect. I have no idea where the judges found the .05 deduction. I don't care if it was the first meet, Danie deserved a 10. BARS: -Sloane Blakely and Anya Pilgrim performed beautifully. -Riley McCusker needs to reestablish her confidence. Given that she missed all of the 2024 season, I'm not concerned for bars or beam moving forward. -Skye Blakely is an outstanding addition to bars regardless of her 9.725. Either the mat wasn't placed properly, or Skye missed her dismount as practiced daily. She landed half on and half off the mat stepping backward likely causing a .15 to .20 deduction. Either way, look for 9.9+ moving forward. Skye had 1 handstand when she was up there so long that I thought she was going to order a cup of coffee before dismounting. -Leanne Wong started her string of 3 straight 9.95s on the bars. In retrospect, Leanne won the meet for UF. BEAM: -What can you say when 49.50 is the top score to date on the beam in the nation after all of the top teams opened in week 1. I did think Anya Pilgrim did better than 9.875. She was rock steady. -Ellie Lazzari was subbed in for Riley McCusker who was moved down to an exhibition. Riley actually scored .025 higher than Ellie who had her score dropped. FLOOR: -Victoria Nguyen's 9.75 on floor is a head scratcher. Her floor music is a bit somber, reminds me of what Leanne Wong did last season, but she looked good to me. If anyone has seen follow up comments on Victoria's score, please let me know. It's like she missed an element to score than low: EDIT: Dr. Sam speculated that Victoria may have stepped out of bounds, but she didn't see it. First, a step out is a .1 deduction. Second, I had an outstanding view of her routine, and I didn't see a step out either plus the announcers didn't say anything about her stepping out or the red flag raised. To get that low at 9.75, Victoria had to have missed an element. -Taylor Clark was so excited she was almost out of control at times. Coral energy and she will be 9.9+ all season. Taylor is outstanding on vault too. -Sloane Blakely was rock steady on bars, beam, and floor after getting her low score of the meet on vault. For the opening meet, Sloane's AA score of 39.50 was very good. -Leanne Wong was outstanding at 9.95. I thought Leanne's floor score and Danie Ferris' vault scores were both 10s. General Comments: Ellie Lazzari had both her beam and floor routines dropped. Ellie can be one of the best beam workers in the nation. I think she should concentrate on being a beam specialist. After last season, I was already thinking get Ellie's best at what she does best. Last night was a confirmation of that to me. As always, I hope she proves me wrong. gatornharlem was being reluctant to speak up about scheduling, but I can't be reluctant to speak up about how UF approached the floor lineup changes last night. First, I thought Selena Harris-Miranda should have been on floor, a 4th AA. Second, taking Anya Pilgrim off AA to insert Lori Brubach was a horrible decision. The decision was so bad that UF blew a big lead on floor of all events and came within .025 of tying and .050 of losing a home meet that should not have been in doubt. I guess that this is my annual rant that CJR doesn't start the season with a killer instinct. UF is fortunate to not be 2-1 this morning which would have been entirely on CJR. I don't agree with KJ Kindler using so many AAs, 5 last week, but she trains her team to go for the jugular from meet 1 insofar as winning and losing is concerned. I like exhibitions for gymnasts who can't earn their way into the lineups. If someone is close to the lineups, understandable, but I didn't see that last night. Danie, Leanne, and Skye did not look happy at the post meet presser about the way the meet turned out. When CJR said it was okay to make the change to the floor lineup, my thought went immediately to give Lori an exhibition instead of allowing her 9.175 to almost cost UF losing the meet to Michigan State. Two years ago, CJR blew off a very close meet at Oklahoma changing the floor lineup, so this isn't the first time this has happened. Please CJR, go for the win, the jugular, when you get the chance to do so. In nitty gritty time in future meets, it will serve to make our top gymnasts stronger. Yes, I realize that the score last night doesn't matter when we get to calculating the NQS. However, I'd like to see our gymnasts happy about a solid performance instead of having to answer questions about low scores by the media. LSU? We will not be seeing anything like last night in the PMAC. UF has proudly won 6 straight SEC Regular Season Championships, so the SEC is important. UF has a little tweaking to do this week as the close meet last night was on CJR rather than the gymnasts.
That could be the result of the new seat licensing fee which in my opinion in the aggregate has priced out many families who previously attended.
Love reading your analysis. It worth it to pay the fee to be in this site for your insights. Jenny is a good coach. I have no doubt she will get it together and perhaps she has a plan. I can tell you that winning the SEC is her top priority based upon past conversations with her.
Skye Blakely is an outstanding addition to bars regardless of her 9.725. Either the mat wasn't placed properly, or Skye missed her dismount as practiced daily. She landed half on and half off the mat, stepping backward, likely causing a .15 to .20 deduction. Either way, look for 9.9+ moving forward. Skye had one handstand when she was up there for so long that I thought she was going to order a cup of coffee before dismounting. From ET1 The mat was misplaced. We saw it before her dismount. Handstands must have been a point of emphasis. There is a video of Anya and Victoria doing handstands, and they answer 10 questions while holding it. See my photo above. Our group sits in 119, Row 3, Seats 1-4 To us it is high enough and close enough. The floor is cramped. The vaulters and the judges could not see each other. And our sideline was disorganized all meet. On vault, the assistants had to enlist two gymnasts to help with the mats. Attendance: I am wondering if they might have overreached on the seat licenses. Surely, have some premium seating, but do not over estimate the budgets of young families. As a contrast, Softball did not even increase ticket prices, much less have seat licenses. And, enough season tickets were sold that there were not enough left for fans to upgrade their seats. If the crowd continues at this level, our homecourt advantage surely will not be the same. It would be informative to know the revenue from last night versus the first meet last year, and then the totals at the end of the year.
You don't have to pay to get the best gymnastics coverage as this is the free side of the site. I love CJR, just wish she'd put the pedal to the metal earlier. This year, she has no choice with UF going to the PMAC next Friday night.
One of the many benefits of living in or close to Gainesville. I read a while back that the performance floor changes would bring more people closer to the floor action. Is that what you found last night?
