(GYM) Gymnastics 2024 - 2025

I didn't know she had a concussion until she revealed so I don't have a clue. I'm just glad she is likely back for AA against OU. It may just be me, but Sloane looks to be in the best shape physically she has ever been in with UF, slimmed down.

 

Haleigh is back in LSU's Vault line-up and scored 9.95. LSU's Vault total vs Oklahoma was 49.600. Their last 4 vault score are (earliest to latest): 49.350, 49.550, 49.450, 49.600, or around +.100 Ours are: 49.550, 49.400, 49.375, 49.275. These are -.100 differences each week. We should be improving each week. We are trending the wrong way. Vault will be the difference in winning or not winning a natty.[/QUOTE]

49.550 - At full strength and health plus still early season
49.400 - gatorgympics stated team affected by flu/sickness
49.375 - Sloane Blakely didn't travel to Arkansas
49.275 - Sloane Blakely performed, but not vault or bars

Think it's fair to ask, what do you think would happen if OU had one of their senior AAs miss back-to-back weeks on the vault?

JMHO, the sooners would be in a bit a trouble due to their lack of depth this year.

Last season, UF improved every meet from opening week until SECs and then again in the national championship finals. That got UF a final 4th place finish in the nation.

This 2025 team is better than the 2024 team. I just don't see vault here roughly at the halfway mark of the season being a make or break for the national championship. I still like UF's chances and hope I'm vindicated next Friday night with a good performance at OU.

Last year I sawed off the limb after picking LSU. I've seen nothing to change my mind after picking UF this season. When this Gator team is full strength and performing well, it is the best team in the nation. Bart Connor stated on the LSU/OU telecast that LSU is the best in the nation. He was all in on Oklahoma last season until they imploded at nationals. Bart is going to be wrong 2 years in a row.

 

Since the NQS (National Qualifying Score) starts officially at the conclusion of today's meets after week 7, it's important to remember how the NQS is calculated.

This from Road to Nationals:

Women: Qualification for regional competition is based on a team's and an all-around competitor's six best regular-season-meet scores, of which three must be away. To obtain the national qualifying score (NQS), the high score is eliminated and the remaining five scores are averaged.

UF's 6 meet scores, 3 home and 3 away:

Meet 1: 196.675 - Home
Meet 2: 197.450 - Away
Meet 3: 198.125 - Home - Dropped
Meet 4: 197.575 - Away
Meet 5: 196.625 - Away
Meet 6: 197.625 - Home

The highest home score is eliminated and the remaining 5 are averaged to arrive at UF's 197.190 NQS after UF's week 6. Keep in mind, most teams have already had 7 meets as UF's opener was in week 2 which is why UF is starting off at NQS #5 in week 1 of the NQS.

The score UF wants to drop this week after the meet at OU is the 196.625 meet 5 away low score as a result of our beam team poor performance at Arkansas.

 

Top 20 NQS after Week 7 - 2.16.2025

Standings

1. Oklahoma 197.730
2. UCLA 197.455
3. LSU 197.420
4. Utah 197.235
5. Florida 197.190
6. California 197.075
7. Michigan State 197.010
8. Missouri 196.995
9. Kentucky 196.950
10. Oregon State 196.840
11. Auburn 196.785
12. Georgia 196.745
13. Minnesota 196.730
14. Arkansas 196.630
15. Michigan 196.585
16. Stanford 196.565
17. Alabama 196.535
18. North Carolina State 196.125
19. Arizona 196.120
20. Nebraska 195.985

Drop off from #17 Alabama to #18 NC State is .410.

Denver won't have an NQS until after next weekend as the Pioneers have a front-loaded schedule of home meets to be followed by a back-loaded schedule of away meets, so they haven't had 3 away meets. It doesn't really matter though as Denver just isn't the good team this year as they have put on the floor in the past, don't see any chance at nationals and possibly not regional finals. Denver only matters to me as I put them at #10 in my preseason top 10.

 

I'm going to LMAO if UF pulls the upset at Oklahoma. Nobody outside of us hardcore Gators gives UF a chance to be truly competitive for the meet on Friday night which is easily the top meet of week 8. College Gym News will likely be unanimous in their predictions for the Sooners to beat the Gators.

I haven't bought Oklahoma all year presuming you know I have OU as the 3rd best team and I'm not buying the Sooners now, very good but not great as we saw at LSU. KJ Kindler had that oh shit why did we join the SEC look on her face as the OU beam rotation progressed. She knew her team had lost the regular season meet of the year, called the Super Bowl of gymnastics by Inside Gymnastics Magazine.

The last time UF went to Oklahoma, CJR blew off a close meet in the last two events by putting in gymnasts to give them some experience performing in a big meet. This is the SEC. A win may put UF back in the running for a 7th consecutive SEC Regular Season Championship. I want nothing less than our best gymnasts in every rotation. Want to give the next best gymnast in line experience, give them an exhibition.

 

I didn't have bama in my preseason top 10 as I thought there was just too much change and youth. Have to say I'm surprised the ripple isn't in the SEC top 8, but a long way to go. Losing Maddie Waligora in transfer to Arkansas didn't help either. I laughed out loud when I saw College Gym News had bama in their preseason top 10. UF goes to bama late in the season so they may be much better by then, or not.

UF's NQS will take a jump so long as the Gators take care of business this week. UF's low road score should go bye, bye to be replaced with a better road score after at OU.

 

Leanne Wong - Inside Gymnastics Magazine Gymnast of the Week for Week 7:

Nate's NCAA News + Notes Week 7!

Gymnast of the Week

Congratulations to Florida’s Leanne Wong on being Inside Gymnastics Gymnast of the Week for Week 7! Wong was booming this week! She earned a 9.975 on bars and notched her first perfect 10.0 of the season on beam! She scored an All-Around total of 39.750, which helped the Gators get the win over Auburn 197.625-196.825. Florida earned this score while counting a fall on bars! Wong is off to the races in her senior season, and we cannot wait to see what else she accomplishes!

 

Big weekend coming up in the SEC. For UF to get back into the SEC Regular Season Championship race, LSU has to have an off night at Kentucky and the wildcats have to perform their best meet of the season while the Gators must beat the sooners. These results would yield a 3-way-tie for first in the SEC at 3-2.

EDIT:

The winner of Georgia at Missouri along with Auburn if the tigers can beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa would yield two more teams with 3-2 records in SEC play. There could be 4 or 5 teams tied at the top of the SEC at 3-2 so long as UF wins at OU and UK beat LSU at home.

With the meet in Lexington, Kentucky has a punchers chance of winning. If UF comes in focused and committed, I like UF's chances of winning at OU. Again, a big weekend in the SEC coming up.

 

SEC accolades for Florida Gators in week 7 for superlative performances:

Trio of Gators Earn SEC Weekly Awards - Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Three Gators – Sloane Blakely, Selena Harris-Miranda and Leanne Wong – earn weekly Southeastern Conference gymnastics honors after their Valentine's Day performances in UF's win versus then No. 12 Auburn.

SEC Gymnast of the Week is shared by Harris-Miranda and Wong after the duo tied for the win with the nation's top all-around total of the weekend (39.75). This is the second SEC Gymnast of the Week honor for both this season and the sixth of Wong's career. Yesterday, Inside Gymnastics named Wong its national gymnast of the week.

Blakley's second career floor exercise 10.0 earned her a share of her first SEC Specialist of the Week award. She shares the honor with Missouri's Kennedy Griffin, who also posted a floor 10.0 at the Zou in the Lou meet.

Rounding out the weekly honors is LSU's Kailin Chio who earns the SEC Freshman of the Week.

 

Winning the regular season title is the least of my concerns going into our 7th meet of the season. This will be the last high profile road meet in front of a Gator hatin' crowd, until SECs. A complete meet, more consistency, more sticks, a good showing would do wonders for our confidence and get the Jenny train bullitting ahead.
On Vault-one or more of these: three stick landings, or four 9.9+ scores and we will score 49.500+
On Bars: no falls and no missed connections. Five solid routings with great handstands, and stick landings. Riley scores a 9.9+ and expect 49.550+
On Beam: confidence, attack the Beam gracefully, show them how infallible we are under pressure, on the road. Six-for-six, a message that to beat us, the Sooners have to step it up! Easily 49.600+ if the gymnasts are confident and stick their landings on Beam.
On Floor: We are looking good on Floor. A couple of hiccups, but we keep improving. Energy will be brimming, especially for the underclasswomen. It's going to be a high pressured meet, and a great opportunity to perform under pressure. Sloane, Anya, Leanne, Taylor, Victoria, Selena are getting more consistent, and very capable of 9.9+. Five 9.9 scores=49.500. Throw in a 9.925, a 9.95, a Sloane 10.00= 49.675.
Oklahoma is treading in shark-infested waters with their depth issue. It will be interesting to see how many AAs they will use. They have another meet on Sunday. They have been consistent each meet, but their best performance won't beat us if we have a complete meet. They will probably get their usual home team scoring advantage, which means finally hitting 198. But I will still be OK-not great but OK-if we score higher than 198.150 and lose. A 198+ road score is still quite impressive in the SEC.
Go Gators![/QUOTE]

Only disagreeing to say I don't want to see UF's 6 consecutive regular season championships come to an end. This is a goal circled by KJ Kindler. If OU gets there and it is likely at this point, I don't want the Sooners to get this as a bragging right without at least having to share. KJ Kindler wants to win the regular season and the SEC tournament championships. UF can stand in the way of Kindler's regular season championship goal by winning at OU on Friday night. It should be a good motivator for the Gators.

How do I know the SEC regular season championship is a goal of OU? KJ Kindler said so and the goal was revealed by the broadcasters in one of OU's meets. Kindler thinks she is going to have her OU team waltz into and dominate the SEC. I like her attitude about winning, but her we're better than everybody else in the SEC attitude is something I find repulsive.

Go Gators! Beat the Sooners!

 

College Gym News is unanimous in their predictions of an OU win over UF:

The Mount: Week 8 Previews and Predictions - College Gym News

Florida at Oklahoma

Friday, Feb. 21 at 9 p.m. ET | ESPN2

Prediction: 74.3% Oklahoma, 25.7% Florida

Fresh off a home victory that featured perfect 10s from Leanne Wong on beam and Sloane Blakely on floor, the Gators head to Norman to take on a Sooner team hungry for redemption. Florida will be aiming for a strong road score to boost its NQS and solidify its spot in the evening session at SEC Championships.

Oklahoma, meanwhile, is coming off a tough loss at LSU. While the Sooners delivered a solid performance, landing struggles proved costly. Though their No. 1 ranking isn’t at risk this weekend, a home win would provide a much-needed confidence boost as they dive deeper into SEC matchups.

Notes about the predictions: Oklahoma and Florida are evenly matched on both vault and beam this season, with simulations giving each team a 50/50 chance of posting the higher score on those events. However, the Sooners hold the edge on bars and floor, with a 78% and 64% chance of winning those events, respectively. For Florida, the key to an upset lies in outperforming Oklahoma on its strongest events. If the Gators can take either bars or floor, their chances of toppling the No. 1 team jump to 61%.

 

Top meets of week 8 that can be watched on TV:

Friday:

LSU at Kentucky SECN at 7 PM ET
Georgia at Missouri SECN+ at 8 PM ET
Auburn at Alabama SECN at 8:30 PM ET
Florida at Oklahoma ESPN2 at 9:00 PM ET

Event Information:

Event: No. 5 Florida at No. 1 Oklahoma Date / Start: Feb. 21 | 9 p.m. ET Site: Lloyd Noble Center (10,967) Television / Stream: ESPN2 with Olympic medalists Bart Conner Bridget Sloan calling the action with Taylor Davis providing sideline reports Live Stats: StatBroadcast Tickets: $8 - $15 Series History (all-time): Florida leads 18-14-1 Last meeting: UF was second in 2024 NCAA Semifinal evening session at 197.875 and Oklahoma was third (196.6625)

Sunday:

UCLA at Michigan Big Ten Network at 4 PM ET

 

May not be likely at OU this week, but I think UF will have Skye Blakely for bars and beam come the SECs and the regionals/nationals. Reposted by Dr. Sam:



That's a simple landing off the beam Skye can control without risking reinjury, but she has to start somewhere. Notice the dismount is to a mat and not the trampoline she was using earlier in her beam practices. Skye has had beam warmup routines at some of the meets without doing dismounts.

As Skye approaches being ready to perform, I hope CJR gives Skye an exhibition which is scored but does not count.