(GYM) Gymnastics 2024 - 2025

Maybe this will inspire the gymnastics team:



Dedication, focus, and passion will be required to follow up the men's basketball natty with a gymnastics natty.

 

College Gym News 10,000 Simulations Have Ranked Final Four and National Champion:

1. Oklahoma
2. LSU
3. Florida
4. UCLA in squeaker over Utah
5. Utah
6. Michigan State
7. Missouri
8. Alabama

Time will tell, but I still think garbage in is garbage out. It ain't no big surprise that CGN favors Oklahoma in coverage and rankings to include recruit rankings.

California, a team thought to be in the top 8, would tell you simulations don't win you anything as Alabama came from down the list at #12 to make the top 8.

I cut my limb off with my final preseason predictions on 12/31/24 so I have to stay the course:

1. Florida
2. LSU
3. Oklahoma
4. California - Eliminated in Tuscaloosa Regional

It's hard to decide on a new #4, but it would be a close finish between UCLA or Utah. The beauty of it is I don't get a second chance to get it right or wrong as I already missed on my preseason final four prediction.

 

College Gym News - National Championship Question:

Questions, Comments, Concerns: Regionals - College Gym News

CGN finally after a full season and regionals has made the admission that Florida has the highest ceiling but has been the least consistent. I agree. With the right mind set over the last two meets, the Gator gymnasts can bring home a national championship.

Question: So, who’s actually winning this national championship?
The short version is I think it’s nearly a three-way toss-up.

Florida in this postseason has made believers of a lot of people. I’ve said it before, but I genuinely think some of Florida’s scoring adventures of the regular season obfuscated how good the team actually is, which is counterintuitive and very funny. Florida might have the highest ceiling of any team in the country, which means nothing if you lack the ability to dial it in in the important meets as we’ve seen in numerous national finals over the last decade. But the last few meets, particularly that phenomenal round two performance, have been really encouraging.

LSU is the consistent one right now. The Tigers haven’t gone below 198 since February. They looked totally unfazed by some pretty stiff competition both at SECs and in the regional final, and I don’t see any particular reason to worry that that will change. Defending a national title is a different kind of pressure, especially when you’ve never done it before, but the competition is hardly impervious to pressure either. If the Final Four becomes a nerve-off, I like LSU’s chances.

Oklahoma hasn’t been quite the force we’re used to this season, but this is Oklahoma we’re talking about, so a really troubling performance is still like a 197.900. Without feeling particularly consistent, this is definitely the team that’s proving it can make the best out of its off days. There are real reasons to be concerned about fatigue with so many routines loaded into a few athletes, but there’s also a real sense in which we’re overreacting to very small aberrations because we’re just not used to seeing them from this team. Will the ghosts of last year’s semifinal disaster come back to haunt the Sooners? Maybe. Vault landings have definitely not looked super comfortable this year, even though everything else about the rotation remains technically excellent. I’m the least certain about which version of Oklahoma will turn up on the last day of the season, but I do know that there’s a world in which OU is not its very best self and earns the trophy anyway.

 

WCGA Region 5 Head Coach, Assistant Coaches, and Administrator of the Year:

 

KJ Kindler - Never Satisfied:

KJ Kindler: Never Satisfied

KJ Kindler has that never lose mentality. She wants to be 1st place all of the time. I like it.

At the end of the season, win or lose, what does it take to make you feel satisfied?

I dislike that phrase, win or lose, because it makes it seem like it doesn’t matter. It does matter. We wouldn’t work this hard—wouldn’t compete at all—if it didn’t matter.

I think the work we’ve done, the progress I’ve seen, and the way this team supports each other, how they lift each other up—those are successes. The way we represent ourselves, and our university, is a success. I’m very proud of our team culture. I’m proud of many things, but I don’t think I ever feel completely satisfied. There’s always more to do, elements to improve upon. Maybe that’s the key to success—never being satisfied.

 

Leanne Wong Eyes NCAA national championship:

With Experience On Her Side, Leanne Wong Eyes NCAA National Team Title

Like OU, UF has the talent to expect to win the national championship every season. Go get it done Gators. The national championships are in sight, April 17 & 19.

World Champion and Olympic alternate Leanne Wong had a whirlwind of a year in 2024. She competed collegiately for the University of Florida, leading them to a fourth-place finish in the NCAA Championship final and picked up a national title on uneven bars. And the busy schedule didn’t stop there. With no time for a break, she jumped right back into elite competition on the road to the Paris Olympics, ultimately qualifying to the team as a traveling alternate for the second straight Olympics. Now, she’s fully immersed into her Senior season at Florida, with hopes of leading the squad to their first National title since 2015.

“Obviously we’d like to take the title home,” Wong said. “That would be really special, since the last national title was in 2015. It would be a really special moment for us to just come together and put all the routines together and just use everything that we’ve built and trained and practiced for all season long – and really just me enjoying the final parts of my NCAA career.”

 

Future Gators Doing Good:



Class of 2025:

Regionals:

Jocelyn Sasson - 1st Bars SrD
Jayla Booker - 1st Floor SrD
Madelyn Dorbin - 1st Bars & Floor SrF

Not sure, but I think the difference between SrD and SrF is an age differentiation.

Class of 2026:

Senior US Team participated in the City of Jesolo (Italy) international competition. The team finished second.

Gators finished 4th and 6th in the all-around:

4. Simone Rose 53.500
6. Dulcy Caylor 53.000

Simone Rose, high 4-star rated on College Gym News, should be 5 stars. Simone is rated 5 stars on College Gym Fans. I doubt College Gym News will elevate Simone's ranking to the 5 that she deserves as it would move Florida from 2 to 1 and Oklahoma from 1 to 2 in the 2026 team rankings.

Ashlee Sullivan in this same meet with Simone and Dulcy finished 3rd with 53.550. Ashlee has been committed to Michigan; however, she removed the commitment on her Instagram page:

https://www.instagram.com/ashleesullivan_/

Ashlee is a 3X member of the USA Senior Team and is a high 4-star gymnast on College Gym News in the 2025 class so she will be in demand if she is reconsidering her options as she is available for the 2025-2026 school year.

FIG World Cup (Antalya, Turkey):

Jayla Hang qualified into the top 8 of each event. Jayla's results:

1. Vault 13.667
6. Bars 12.734
7. Beam 12.300
6. Floor 12.966

A name that popped out to me in the FIG World Cup is Claire Pease. She is in the class of 2027. I hope Jenny Rowland is on her like white on rice. All this young lady did was to finish 2nd on vault, 2nd on bars, 1st on beam, and 2nd on floor. I also hope Jayla Hang was talking up Florida with her:

https://www.instagram.com/clairepease/

Unlike Hezly Rivera, I hope she wants to participate in collegiate team gymnastics. I don't think Hezly is ever going to show up at LSU.

 

College Gym News Previews the 2025 Nationals:

Previewing the 2025 National Championship Team Contenders - College Gym News

UF is starting on beam in the semifinal:

No. 3 Florida

Semifinal 1: Thursday, April 17 at 4:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2

Starting Event: Beam

Relevant Stats: 395.635 NQS | 197.700 regional final | 197.573 average | 198.625 season high

Chance to Advance: 79.40%

Why It’ll Win: Despite the challenges with injuries, the Gators have had a record-setting regular season. It was a slow start as they found a rhythm, but the emergence of Selena Harris-Miranda in the all-around and the continued consistency of Leanne Wong led to a new NCAA record on bars at the SEC championship and the highest team score of the season, outpacing even Oklahoma and LSU.

Why It Won’t Win: Florida starts on beam in its semifinal, a risk for any team, but it’s an event where the Gators struggled the most with consistency as scores ranged from 48.250 to 49.700. Florida cannot count a miss to keep pace with other teams in this all-SEC semifinal.

Why It Would Be Cool If It Won: Florida’s gone a decade without a national championship, a win here would give it its fourth team title in program history.

 

Great stuff reposted by Dr. Sam. The future is brightly shining:





Looks like Dr. Sam has made her national championships predictions:

 

Locals can send the Gators off to nationals this morning at 11:30 AM ET:





Go Gators!

 

How to Follow the Gators:

U.S. Olympians Samantha Peszek, Aly Raisman and John Roethlisberger call the action with Taylor Davis providing sideline reports.

Date Competition TV Stream Scores

April 17 4:30 p.m.ET/Semi I ESPN 2 ESPN2 Live Scoring
April 17 9 p.m. ET/ Semi II ESPN 2 ESPN2 Live Scoring

April 19 3:30 p.m. NCAA Preview ESPN+
April 19 4 p.m. NCAA Team Final ABC ESPN+ Live Scoring
April 19 6 p.m. NCAA Trophy Presentation ESPN+

 

hope live performances are better than what we have had so far.

It seems to me that UF has a good meet followed up by a bad meet. This is the time of the season when the last 2 meets need to be nearly flawless if the Gators are to bring home the trophy. As the #3 NQS, the Gators will have to be noticeably better than both LSU and Oklahoma.

 

Team has to have a fight for every tenth mentality or UF will fall short again. Gators have to want it more.

 

EDIT: Mods, please let me know why this post has not been released. It would be helpful to know how the post is structured requiring moderation. Thank you.

This is what College Gym News said as posted in #1524 above.

Florida in this postseason has made believers of a lot of people. I’ve said it before, but I genuinely think some of Florida’s scoring adventures of the regular season obfuscated how good the team actually is, which is counterintuitive and very funny. Florida might have the highest ceiling of any team in the country, which means nothing if you lack the ability to dial it in in the important meets as we’ve seen in numerous national finals over the last decade. But the last few meets, particularly that phenomenal round two performance, have been really encouraging.

CGN used the phrase "dial it in." I agree. Dialed in is mental, a mindset. The Gators need 2 dialed in meets at nationals. The national championship is there for the taking. Dial in for 2 meets and bring it home Gators.

I said this in post #1410 headed into regionals:

To be sure, the Gators need to come in focused and ready to go. Cal and bama have good teams plus the tide has home floor advantage.

Along the way, I also said it's what's between the ears that's the most important. The talent differences between Florida, LSU, and Oklahoma are minimal, Gators with a slightly higher ceiling. It's mental, a mindset for winning that will allow the Gators to win the national championship.