(GYM) Gymnastics 2024 - 2025

This is what I wrote after the meet on Friday:

"I like a dedicated and focused UF team with a high-quality coach to have a very good chance of advancing through regionals and to compete for and win the national championship."

Maybe I should have added passion to the list. There wasn't anything physically different in this Gator team that scored 198.225 on Friday only to turn around and score 197.700 on Sunday. Anything different involved what is between the ears, lack of dedication, focus, and passion. It wouldn't have taken much in this regional for UF to have come home for good eliminated with that Sunday performance.

CJR said after the meet that the Gators were coming home to rest and to grind to get ready for nationals. I don't think resting is the answer. I'm not sure what the equivalent to football teams running stadium steps is in gymnastics, but that's what I would have had my gymnastics team doing at 6 a.m. before classes begin on Monday morning. This team needs to get into their head that they have to get better with each meet.

LSU was basically the same in each regional meet.

Oklahoma went up considerably in their Sunday regional. What do you think KJ Kindler would be saying and having her team do if OU had gone down .525 from Friday to Sunday. She sure as heck wouldn't be wanting to take her team home for rest. (shaking head)

I've come to the conclusion that until the gymnasts and coaches have that dedication, focus, and passion, the Gators will continue to be also rans.

Bottom line, there was not any event team that I was satisfied with the gymnast performances. It's all about what the UF gymnasts have lacking between the ears.

The Gators have two more meets to prove themselves national championship worthy or just the 3rd best team in the SEC. My hope is the Gators will choose the former.

 

Identical to what she did on Friday including the hitch forward to the right. If she could get a stick, she'd have scored a 9.95. Of course, Anya stuck her landing with an excellent vault and only scored a 9.90.

I'm not a fan of giving the leadoff gymnast a lower score just so judges can show building scores. This practice should be focused on and made a relic of the past. Each gymnast should get the score they deserve regardless of their position in the lineup.

 

Road to Nationals NQS After Regionals:

Standings

1. Oklahoma
2. LSU
3. Florida
4. Utah
5. UCLA
6. Missouri
7. Alabama
8. Michigan State
9. California
10. Kentucky
11. Arkansas
12. Denver
13. Oregon State
14. Auburn
15. Minnesota
16. Arizona

Compared to my preseason prediction rankings, I ended up with 8 of the top 10 and 7 of the top 8 going to nationals. I had Arkansas and Denver in my top 10 and Alabama took California out of my top 8 leaving the Golden Bears to finish 9th. Except for UCLA, it hasn't been a good year on the left coast.

 

The same problem we had on vault, too many errors. Thankfully, the beam team didn't implode like at Arkansas and at Oklahoma as UF would have been eliminated. From one beam performer to the next, UF just didn't get the job done at a championship level.

From one vault performer to the next, UF just didn't get the job done at a championship level.

Apparently, this meet was about doing just enough to get by which the Gators barely did. Happy to win the regional and advance is about the best you can say.

 

Agree, but the bigger surprise to me was Skye Blakely getting a 9.925 for a bars routine that was perfect.

I have now watched it back over and over again:



I couldn't find a single deduction. I challenge anyone here to find the .05 and .1 judges deductions averaged to 9.925. Maybe Skye didn't hold her last handstand long enough which is not required, only that the gymnast is 10% either side of vertical. Skye held it for a framing pause plus was as vertical as a gymnast can be.

By any measure, it was world class, probably would have won her an Olympics medal. The 9.925 didn't accurately reflect what Skye performed.

UF can use Skye on beam. Hopefully, she'd add a needed shot of consistency to the beam team.

You mentioned Selena being downgraded a bit. Her 9.90 bars should have been a 9.95 and would have been anywhere except in the Tuscaloosa regional:



Somebody please point out the .1 deduction in Selena's performance. She had a slight rock on one of her handstands, but that would have been no more than a .5 deduction.

 

I also commented on Selena's bars above.

Anya deserved a 9.85. It was a beautiful routine made to look effortless, but she failed to stick her landing hopping backwards.

Bottom line, UF should have had a higher team bar score as both Skye and Selena were both underscored.

You can learn a lot by actually watching the meets. Bart Connor and Trinity Thomas both were expounding expert opinions. Stats can never tell you enough if you really want to go in depth more than a cursory understanding of what goes on in meets, performances, judging, and politics/bias.

 

While searching YouTube, I found the ESPN+ video of the full regional final meet:



The good news is you can watch as much or as little as you want.

Enjoy!