OU at UF Women's Gymnastics

It’s crazy to me that they out some the conference meets in front of this one as far as TV. Maybe the biggest meet of the regular season.

 

For the third consecutive week, the nation's top gymnastics dual of weekend includes the Gators. No. 3 Florida plays host to No. 2 Oklahoma for its 2022 sold-out home finale Friday.

This is the 13th consecutive meeting between these two programs that at least one team bring the No. 1 or No. 2 ranking. Six of the last nine NCAA team titles were claimed by these two teams, including sharing the 2014 crown. Florida won the title outright in 2013 and 2015 and Oklahoma took the 2016, 2017 and 2019 titles. In the 2021 NCAA Team Final, Oklahoma was second and Florida took fourth.

Friday's meet starts at 6:45 p.m. in the Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center.

Gators Gymnastics Senior Night:
It's also Senior Night. It's an expanded class this year with Super Seniors Alyssa Baumann and Megan Skaggsrepeating the celebration again in 2022. They join seniors Leah Clapper, Sydney Johnson-Scharpf, Nya Reed, Savannah Schoenherr, Halley Taylor and Trinity Thomas for the celebration of their Gator careers following Friday's competition.

 

The aura of women's gymnastics is on the other side of the planet compared to his usual gig at prizefights and Los Angeles Rams games. Still, if Michael Buffer showed up at the O'Dome on Friday night and belted out his famous "Let's Get Ready to Rumble!" he would fit right in.

This is a big one.

"There's going to be a lot of electricity out on that competition floor,'' UF coach Jenny Rowland said. "The Gators are ready to protect their ground."

The No. 3-ranked Gators host No. 2 Oklahoma in their latest marquee matchup. Florida defeated Alabama earlier this season at home on national television, and two weeks ago, took down rival LSU to delight the home fans.

A week ago, the Gators clinched at least a share of the Southeastern Conference regular-season title – the program's fourth in a row – by winning at Kentucky.

No season is perfect, but for a team with national title ambitions and coming off an injury-marred 2021 postseason, the Gators have kept pace as the 2022 postseason nears. Friday night's meet against Oklahoma is the final home performance of the season. The Gators close with road trips to Auburn and a tri-meet at North Carolina State.

"This team has definitely come away from every competition better for it, growing from it," Rowland said. "This Friday is no different. I think it's an amazing opportunity to be in the SEC because, in the SEC, all of these teams help each other become the best that we can be a little bit faster. You don't get that weekend off. You are competing against the best of the best every week. To prepare us for the postseason, I wouldn't want to be in any other conference."

The O'Dome is the place to be Friday night when the Gators host Oklahoma in the nation's top dual meet this week. (Photo: Isabella Marley/UAA Communications)
While Oklahoma is still a member of the Big 12, that changes in July 2025 when the Sooners and University of Texas (no women's gymnastics team) become members of the SEC. These two programs already have an intense rivalry in gymnastics. The Gators and Sooners have won six of the last nine NCAA titles, including sharing the 2014 championship.

Beyond the nation's top dual meet this week, the Gators will celebrate Senior Night on Friday. Eight members of this year's team will be honored: Super Seniors Alyssa Baumann and Megan Skaggs, and fourth-year seniors Leah Clapper, Nya Reed, Savannah Schoenherr, Halley Taylor, Trinity Thomas and Sydney Johnson-Scharpf.

Schoenherr will have a personal cheering section with family and friends making the trip from her home in Georgia. She said the opportunity to compete on a national stage each week for the Gators is everything she imagined and more.

Still, she is nowhere near ready for the trip to be over. Schoenherr envisions more celebrations like last week after clinching a share of the SEC regular-season title at Kentucky.

"It was definitely an awesome goal to accomplish. I know the team was super excited, especially my class coming in, and being regular-season champs every single year we've been here, was a huge accomplishment we're all proud of,'' Schoenherr said. "That was just one step in the process."

Next up: Oklahoma.

The Sooners are loaded as usual, with Audrey Davis (uneven bars), Katherine LeVasseur (vault) and Ragan Smith (balance beam) atop the national individual rankings.

Florida has ample star power, too. And the most depth in program history.

Senior Night is proof of that with eight gymnasts being honored. Take Schoenherr for example. The native of Columbus, Ga., has developed into a key contributor on the vault and uneven bars.

And when she is not competing, she provides oomph as a human charger.

"She really has been an amazing leader in just being herself,'' Rowland said. "Savvy has gone from a freshman to a senior and has just blossomed in so many areas of leadership. She is that energy, that electricity, that vibe that the team thrives off."

The rumbling starts at 6:45 Friday night.

 

Tied at 49.4 after one rotation. The judges aren't giving anything away tonight, but they have been consistent. Can't ask for more than that.

 

Does anyone know a way to track the scores during the rotations? It is maddening to me to not be able to see them. The announcers are always way behind and hard to to catch and track.

 

StatMonitr Stat Feed

.225 lead after two rotations. We done good on bars.

 

Awesome thanks!

 

Trinity was absolutely flawless on beam, and she got a 9.975. These judges are very tight with the scores.

.2 lead going into the last rotation.

 

198.1

 

Awesome win!

 

Home gym advantage but still a fantastic result.

 

So I think we drop a 197.675 and Oklahoma has a 196 something they can drop, so they will stay ahead of us. Does all but wrap up top 4 though.

 

For NQS, three scores must be away scores. We've had only three road meets so far and since the 196.975 was a road score, we can't drop it tonight. We drop the 197.675 home score. We can't drop the 196.975 road score until next week-provided we score higher than that.

4. Florida
Road Score 1 197.775
Road Score 2 197.575
Road Score 3 196.975
Home/Road Score 1 198.250
Home/Road Score 2 198.150
Home/Road Score 3 198.100

 

Was a typo by me that I fixed, was trying to say tonight didn’t help us much in catching Oklahoma or Michigan, in fact Oklahoma separated from us tonight given what they could drop. Next week might help however.

 

Trinity Thomas can very well score a perfect 40.00 (10's on all 4 events). It's been done only once in 1996 by a Georgia gymnast (it's on YouTube-judges missed a few deductions). Trinity is very capable! Her 39.85 tonight is the highest so far this season.

 

Oklahoma's NQS score after the Florida meet is now 197.85. Utah had a road score of 196.775 so their NQS is 197.685 and ours is 197.715. #3 is not bad considering we are the only team of the top 4 still counting a sub-197 score. I much prefer us going to Raleigh regional instead of Auburn, as do most of Gator Nation. Auburn is on course for either a #5 or #6 seed. If we can score a 198+(asking too much?) at Auburn, NC State and SECs, we should finish as a 1 or 2 seed (all 5 countable scores would be 198+) and hopefully travel to Raleigh. Of course Utah, Oklahoma and Michigan will want to have a say in this...