(GYM) Gymnastics 2024 - 2025

Glad you posted that our side is free..

 

@ETGator1
What is your opinion about not accepting the Sprouts meet ( I think that was what it was called)

 

Victoria was flagged for being out of bounds just before she started her first tumbling pass. The yellow flag went up and was reported to the head judge after Victoria completed her routine. I watched the replay of the meet, and her left heel was maybe a centimeter over the line.

 

I disagreed with you 2 years ago arguing that CJR was right. I do not disagree this year. Her choices of who was participating and in what position were baffling. Your comments seem spot on to me.

 

So....is there a way to maybe swap the equipment around to make each rotation move to the next nearest station still keeping the floor on the end and $ seats as is? It was just very congested especially with 4 teams but even in a dual it had issues. There wasn't even a line of sight on some apparatus between score table and athlete as we had other people relaying the signal to start i just didn't like tge layout at all and hopefully it can be tweaked a little

 

Yes, I agree with the 9.85 score. She had a slight hesitation between her double front and the leap on her first tumbling pass, and the judges will always deduct for a hesitation. She had her usual gorgeous routine after that first pass. She is an exquisite dancer, and her routine highlights her dancing ability.

 

I heard that the NCAA and TV dictated the equipment layout. However, I also think money entered into the equation - so take your pick for the reason.

 

Are we now the third best team in the SEC?
Disclaimer: I am not in any way an expert, nor pretend to be. Heck, I am not even the most knowledgeable on this site (that distinction goes ETGator1 IMHO). I can only offer my observations and hopefully, a meaningful dialog commences that is entertaining, educational, enlightening, and respectful.

The best fans are the most knowledgeable fans.

It's very hard to win a title
I do believe Jenny Rowland is not only one of the top coaches but also the best recruiter in college gymnastics. Our recruiting classes are consistently ranked in the top three, the graduation rate and GPAs of the team members are among the highest in the country. Jenny has the Gators contending for both SEC and national titles every year. She does not rebuild, she reloads and if the universe ever lines up perfectly and smiles down on the Gators, Rowland will lead us to a NCAA title. But there's other ways to win... In college gymnastics, winning a NCAA championship is a very elusive club to join. From 1982-2012, only four teams had won the title-Utah, Georgia, Alabama and UCLA. When Florida finally crashed the party in 2013, Rhonda Faehn had been the head coach for ten years. KJ Kindler was Oklahoma’s HC for ten years when they tied Florida in 2014. Michigan’s HC won her first after 20+ years. LSU’s head coach DD Breaux spent 43 years trying to win a title before retiring. Her assistant coach Jay Clark replaced her and won the title in only his fourth year as head coach at LSU. But Clark has been around for quite a while. For 18 years, he was an assistant coach under Georgia’s legendary coach Suzanne Yoculan.

In 1982, Yoculan interviewed at Nebraska for the head coaching position. In one of the greatest bonehead decisions EVER, Nebraska decided to hire someone else. Three months later, Georgia hired Yoculan

Jenny was an assistant coach at Auburn and helped them advance to the finals for the first time since the 90’s before getting the UF job. Jay Clark helped coach over seven NCAA titles working under Yoculan. Florida is Jenny’s first HC position, LSU is Jay’s second. When you compare Jay's 18 years working under Yoculan to Jenny's stint at Auburn, it is not surprising Clark won a natty before Jenny.

The absolute joy and giddiness of watching Oklahoma’s collapse was short lived and offered little solace to the suffering I endured watching LSU's title-run last year.

KJ Kindler is the master of getting her gymnasts peaking at the right time. Since 2014, the year Kindler and Oklahoma tied the Gators for their first natty, the Sooners have won five championships. Oklahoma has been extremely tough to beat at NCAAs. It has taken some crazy out-of-this-world performances by other teams to beat them: UCLA's Peng Peng Lee’s Perfect 10.0 on Beam in 2018, Michigan coming out of nowhere to have two amazing meets in both the semis and finals in 2021. It seems every year at the championships, Oklahoma brims with confidence. They look in the eyes of other gymnasts and-with wink and a sly grin-dare them: “Catch us if you can.” They even got swag on the beam.
Last year LSU was like that in the finals. It was as if they knew no one was going to stop them. They knew they were going to win.
Rhonda Faehn got the swag going at UF. In 2013, commentators remarked on how confident the Gators looked when they entered the arena: “The Gators marching in with all their elites are making a bold statement to the other teams that they’ve arrived!” Even when the Gators had to count a fall on Beam, you could still feel their confidence- “People relax! We got this!” Their next routine on Floor was a 49.725. And just like that, the Gators were right back in the title mix.
I’ve never felt that vibe from Florida since Jenny became HC.
I’ve often wondered how many more titles we would’ve won by now if Rhonda had stayed…

More is More

Every year Oklahoma and LSU start their season on opening weekend. The Sooners also schedule a double meet weekend (a meet on Friday, and another meet on Monday). Kindler has been doing this since the beginning, probably out of necessity since the Big 12 had less members and lower quality rivals. I thought for sure with the SEC schedule and competition, she would reduce either the length of the season or eliminate the double meet. I was wrong. Right out of the gates, the Sooners opened with a quad meet on Jan 3rd. Then they were in the Sprout’s Farmers Market Collegiate Quad podium meet. The meet had the electricity and excitement of a championship meet with the setup, music, lighting, crowd noise, electricity, and pressure. Since both the SEC Championship and the rest of postseason will be on a podium, this meet is ideal for teams to prepare for the postseason since it mimicked the exact conditions and atmosphere of the NCAA postseason and a great way to prepare the athletes for the psychological and physiological demands at the highest level of competing against the best athletes and teams. The athletes can mentally prepare themselves for the pressure and stress to make any necessary adjustments and fine-tune their execution on the podium, and get accustomed to the specific conditions of the competition.
After the Feb 21st meet with us, Oklahoma goes to Ft Worth to compete against North Carolina on Feb 23rd. So Kindler has not backed down on the number of meets or length of season.

Last year before the start of the 2024 season, Jenny was interviewed by All Things Gymnastics and was asked why the Gators first meet wasn't until the 2nd week in January, when the season started a week earlier: "We didn't want to be rushed right after the holidays…I intentionally scheduled it that way…the SEC is a gauntlet…the season is long enough."

In 2019 Florida had only nine meets scheduled (our first meet was the week after season started, and we were off on the weekend before the SECs). Both LSU and Oklahoma had 12 meets. LSU won the SEC title. At the Corvallis Regional, we had to count a fall on Beam and failed to advance (only the second time in history the Gators failed to advance to the NCAAs). LSU and Oklahoma fought toe-to-toe in the NCAA final, with Oklahoma winning it all again.
Then there was that meet at Oklahoma. One vs Two. It was highly anticipated and on national TV. The gymnastics universe called it the “meet of the year.” It was a great opportunity for the Gators to perform under pressure and in front of a hostile crowd. While Oklahoma used their best line-ups, in a puzzling move, Jenny decided to rest our best gymnasts, the AAs were in only one or two routines. I remember listening to gymnastics podcasts afterwords, people were disappointed and questioned Jenny’s logic. “Kindler uses her best line-ups for their big meets and still manages to rest her athletes before postseason.

Since 2016-Jenny’s first season-Florida has been underperforming at the NCAA’s. You would hear: “I would bet on the Gators, they do have the best talent to win it all, but…”
In 2022, the Gators had a record breaking year. We scored at that time the nation’s third highest score in history-198.775-in the Regional finals. In the NCAA finals, the Gators fought hard but Oklahoma had ice in their veins when the meet was on the line and won. In 2023 the Gators seemed to rally behind Trinity Thomas’s injury and fought really hard. But on Oklahoma's final routine, the Beam, you just knew Oklahoma wasn’t going to give it away. the Sooners were nearly perfect and won again. A healthy Trinity would have led us to the natty.

Pressure is a privilege
When the postseason rolls around, Oklahoma always seems rested and peaking at the NCAAs. The tighter the meet, the tougher they are and the better they perform. Do the extra meets and tougher schedules give them their swag? Does Jenny’s reluctance to compete in tough quad meets early in the season give other teams like LSU and Oklahoma an edge over us? Does Jenny's lack of killer instinct in early meets cost us NCAA titles? KJ Kindler and Jay Clark would never be accused of lacking a killer instinct. Last night, Jenny’s poor decision-making nearly cost us the meet. Once we had a fall on Floor, she should’ve inserted Harris-Miranda or someone just as reliable, to instill in her team that in every meet, regardless the opponent, we fight hard to win. She seemed to not be aware of the negative implications and fall-out if we had blown the meet. Feeling positive or confident would 've been next to impossible if we had blown the lead and lost.

 

*correction Oklahoma meets Florida on Feb 21, then North Carolina on Monday, Feb 24. I had previously said Fri 21st-Sun 23rd
I'm not a fan of the double meet weekend, either. I was pointing out Kindler's schedules and how it adds another meet for her
Since only six meets count, CJR could use the opening weekend as a "pre-season" meet to play around with the line-ups and give a chance for some gymnasts to "fight" for a spot in the "Friday Night Line-ups." The second weekend would be against a tougher opponent(s), and another round of competing for a spot in the "Friday Night Line-ups" (Jenny can still rest athletes) and to iron out the line-ups before the SEC season. The competition gives the non-starters to show their fighting spirit, and how they handle pressure, since collegiate gymnastics is a different type of pressure than competing for yourself. These athletes would be more prepared to step in when needed. It also gives the opportunity to add another home meet.
I also would like to see the SEC have 3x tri-meets, similar to the B1G 10s 2x quint (5) meets they used to have when they had ten teams. It would free up one weekend for each team to schedule a non-SEC opponent. They could switch around teams every season so it's not the same three teams competing every year. It could be at a neutral site with one tri-meet on Friday, and two on Saturday.

 

I think one of the problems is CJR's attitude and passiveness, like "the gymnasts are too precious and I must not stress them out from too many tough meets, and the season is already too long." I can imaging Kindler (and Jay Clark) pumping up her gymnasts-"The more tough meets we have, the harder we are to beat. Let's keep showing the nation how great we are and put fear in their heads. We'll go anywhere, anytime to kick your butt!"

 

Commentary on the Sprout’s Farmers Market Collegiate Quad meet with Oklahoma, LSU, California, Utah:

Oklahoma used 5 AAs again and looked in mid-season form. They did struggle on Vault, but after a fall from their second gymnast, they hit 4 in a row and avoided disaster. The Sooners were in top form on the other three events, especially on Bars, showing no fatigue on their final event and looking as strong as last year’s line-up, scoring 49.700. Despite their 49.200 on Vault, Oklahoma came very close to be the first team to break 198.000, scoring "only" 197.975. Despite their 49.275, Utah had the most creative and original bar routines. Their Beam is traditionally their strongest event, but after a 49.475 in their season opener, they really struggled in this meet with a 49.075. The Utes’ Avery Neff, the nation’s top recruit, performed much better today, improving her AA score from 38.700 last week, to 39.600. Utah only improved their score from a week ago (196.775 to 196.800) and were the only team to not reach 197.000. California finished third, but showed much improvement from their opening meet, scoring 1.00 better (196.275 to 197.275). LSU struggled on Beam, but looked strong on Vault (49.450) without Hayleigh, and they haven't lost a "step" on Floor (49.525). If Hayleigh is able to work her way back to last season's form, LSU's Floor and Vault scores will go up up up... On Beam, Haleigh struggled, scoring 9.750. LSU battled Oklahoma until the very end, finishing in second place with a score of 197.650, an improvement from last week’s 197.300.
This is the second year for the Sprout’s Farmers Market Collegiate Quad podium meet. The commentators talked extensively about each program, their coaches and about Olympians they have coached. They also mentioned multiple times how these are the nation’s top programs and a preview for the NCAA championship.
Oklahoma's senior Jordon Bowers won AA with a score of 39.675. LSU senior Aleah Finnegan and their freshman sensation Kailin Chio tied for RU (39.625).

Team VT UB BB FX Total
Oklahoma 49.200 49.700 49.525 49.525 197.975
LSU 49.450 49.425 49.250 49.525 197.650
California 49.275 49.325 49.325 49.350 197.275
Utah 49.200 49.275 49.075 49.250 196.800

 

Denver hosted a quad meet today with Missouri, Georgia and LIU. It was the first meet for Georgia and their new coaches, but they were scoring like last year's team. It was the second meet for the other schools. Last week, Denver looked shaky against Michigan counting two falls on BB. Today they had 1 fall but was able to drop it and came away with a much better score of 49.125 after last week's 47.975. The other 3 teams struggled on BB: Georgia had to count 1 fall, Missouri, who's usually one of the top BB teams in the country, had 1 gymnast fall, but they had only 1 gymnast scoring above 9.8 for a total of 48.575, lower than last week's 49.100. Georgia's two falls left the rest of the line-up shaky, resulting in a dismal BB total of 48.325. LIU had to count multiple falls and scored 45.975. Georgia had the highest VT score 49.300 and Missouri had trouble sticking their landings, scoring 48.975, the same score as last week's. Missouri's best event was FX with a 49.450, an improvement from last week's 49.200, and the best team FX score in this meet. Georgia had the highest score on UB 49.300. Denver won the meet with a 196.575, which is nearly a point higher than last week's 195.700.
In AA, Denver's Rylie Mundell scored 39.275 to take the title. Neither Georgia or Missouri had a gymnast on all four events.

Team VT UB BB FX Total
Denver 49.250 49.200 49.125 49.000 196.575
Missouri 48.975 49.125 48.575 49.450 196.125
Georgia 49.300 49.350 48.325 49.000 195.975
LIU 47.650 47.700 45.975 46.750 188.075

 

The meet will probably be either in Oklahoma City or Ft Worth. Since we host Oklahoma next year, do you still not want us to participate? I think it's an opportunity we can't pass on. Plus the gymnasts love competing in these types of meets. They get to see other gymnasts they grew up with, or trained together in the same gym. The central location is also an easier trip to make for family members to go watch their daughters competing. We will get an invite. $ponsors and event planners love the Gators and know how dedicated Gator Nation i$. We travel$ well and watch them on TV. We were invited last year, too. It may have been sponsored by someone else, but they had three quad meets in the second weekend.