No. 2 Florida Gymnastics Clinches Shares of SEC Title with Win at No. 10 Kentucky

No. 2 Florida Gymnastics Clinches Shares of SEC Title with Win at No. 10 Kentucky
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Florida gymnastics earned at least a share of its fourth consecutive Southeastern Conference regular-season title, but needed strong and steady late performances Friday to claim the win.

No. 2 Florida trailed No. 10 Kentucky by 0.175 at the midpoint and held a slight 0.05 lead heading into the final rotation. There was no room for a miss on its closing event if Florida wanted to guarantee a share of the 2022 SEC title.

The Gators closed with a six-for-six balance beam set to claim a 197.575 – 197.35 win Friday in front of 3,687 at the Memorial Coliseum.

SEC TITLE:

* Florida claims its 14th SEC title and fourth consecutive (1982, ’83, ’84, ’85, ’89, ’07, ’10, ’12, ’13, 16, ’19, ’20, ’21, ‘22). This is the sixth year for the awarding of a regular-season SEC gymnastics title. From 1981-2016, the winner at the SEC Championship meet was considered the league champion.
* Tonight’s win ups Florida athletics overall SEC total to a league-high 252 titles. <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__floridagators.com_sports_2015_12_10_-5Foverview-5F.aspx&d=DwIFJg&c=sJ6xIWYx-zLMB3EPkvcnVg&r=o5LKAX7slotfFMyE71jI7L22NYBIi1-KbRGNSXudTPo&m=boRNWA4zpfKfhynZ2FnquBLKo-nsvt6AyN45y9IbsCmUpbqENZz7-O9YUN5oGEMJ&s=jrz2Gt7jnpij1jr5gHFHrwVfinQP-741rMWyzUY_R44&e= >
* Gymnastics claims Florida athletics first SEC title of 2021-22. Florida’s picked up at least one SEC team title for 44 consecutive seasons – the league’s longest current streak

Florida’s win tonight clinches at least a share of the SEC title with one league meet remaining.

THIS EVENING’S MEET
Florida trailed after opening with its season-low uneven bars total of 49.15. Florida was led on bars by a pair of 9.85s by Megan Skaggs and Savannah Schoenherr. Kentucky’s Shealyn Luksik took the bars win at 9.925.

Marks of 9.9 or better went toward Florida’s vault total of 49.525. Freshman Sloane Blakely anchored the lineup with her collegiate-best 9.925, which placed second Friday. Four other Gators – Skaggs, Schoenherr, Leanne Wong and Trinity Thomas – posted 9.9 vaults. The event title was claimed by UK’s Arianna Patterson at 9.95.

Thomas posted her second floor exercise 10.0 of the season Friday to take the win. Fellow senior Nya Reed shared second at 9.95 with UK’s Raena Worley.

With just a whisper of a lead, the Gators knew they needed a hit beam set to claim the win. Skaggs set the Gators off by equaling her collegiate best of 9.95 start the beam set. Thomas almost found perfection again, winning beam with a near-perfect 9.975. Blakely completed the Gators beam sweep to take third at 9.925.

Thomas claimed her 20th all-around win of her career and second of 2022 with a total of 39.70. UK’s Worley was runner-up (39.625) and Blakely took third (39.425).

GATOR PERFORMANCE NOTES:

* This meet was one of two of the weekend featuring top-10 teams, with both coming tonight. In addition to No. 2 Florida at No. 10 Kentucky, No. 8 Alabama competed at No. 5 LSU.
* Thomas leads all of the nation’s competitors with four 10.0s in 2022 (two floor, one vault & beam).
* It’s now a dozen 10.0s for Thomas in her Gator career – five floor, three bars & beam, one vault
* With her three event wins Friday, Thomas now has 89 career event wins, which is third all-time for the Gators.
* Collegiate bests tonight:
* Sloane Blakely: 9.925 (vault)
* Megan Skaggs: 9.95 (beam)
* Trinity Thomas: 10.0 (floor)
* Leanne Wong: 9.90 (vault)

COACH ROWLAND SAID:

“Coming out with a W always feels fabulous. The Gators worked really hard tonight. They fought through adversity as there were little things here and there. We stayed within our team and controlled our controllables and they just finished off really smooth and very confident.

“This always a great battle and always a great test on the road to prepare us for postseason as well.” – Florida Head Coach Jenny Rowland

RECORDS: No. 2 Florida (9-0, 6-0 SEC)
No. 10 Kentucky (6-2, 3-2 SEC)

SERIES RECORD:
Florida leads 91-1.

RANKINGS:
Florida: No. 2 on the Week 4 Road to Nationals site<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__roadtonationals.com_results_standings_season_2022_6_0_5&d=DwIFJg&c=sJ6xIWYx-zLMB3EPkvcnVg&r=o5LKAX7slotfFMyE71jI7L22NYBIi1-KbRGNSXudTPo&m=boRNWA4zpfKfhynZ2FnquBLKo-nsvt6AyN45y9IbsCmUpbqENZz7-O9YUN5oGEMJ&s=-6QxvvRdX4aRiFZDqSW21uw34jNreOl4CPBNaiVyPrQ&e= >
Kentucky: No. 10
NOTE: National Qualifying Average (NQS) ranks the teams beginning on Monday. The NQS consists of a team’s six best regular-season-meet scores, of which three must be away. To obtain NQS, the high score is eliminated and the remaining five scores are averaged.

UP NEXT:
Competition continues versus top-10 teams next Friday when No. 3 Oklahoma visits Gainesville.

It is Gator Senior Night and Florida will honor seven in a post-meet ceremony.

When: Friday, Feb. 25 at 6:45 p.m. ET
Venue: Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center<https://www.oconnellcenter.ufl.edu/events/gymnastics-vs-oklahoma-senior-night/>
Streaming Video: SEC Network +
Stats: Stats Link<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__stats.statbroadcast.com_statmonitr_-3Fid-3D381441&d=DwIFJg&c=sJ6xIWYx-zLMB3EPkvcnVg&r=o5LKAX7slotfFMyE71jI7L22NYBIi1-KbRGNSXudTPo&m=boRNWA4zpfKfhynZ2FnquBLKo-nsvt6AyN45y9IbsCmUpbqENZz7-O9YUN5oGEMJ&s=ZitNGTDO1P4VZxtjUdJsOp9H7ZbR5spE0YcB3IzRaYU&e= >
Tickets: Florida Gymnastics Tickets<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__am.ticketmaster.com_gators_buy-3FfilterType-3D3&d=DwIFJg&c=sJ6xIWYx-zLMB3EPkvcnVg&r=o5LKAX7slotfFMyE71jI7L22NYBIi1-KbRGNSXudTPo&m=boRNWA4zpfKfhynZ2FnquBLKo-nsvt6AyN45y9IbsCmUpbqENZz7-O9YUN5oGEMJ&s=2o_NSsFiPEjWh0y_z135Bzro64vX1tJC5_ofoDBLd00&e= >

No. 2 Florida at No. 10 Kentucky
Final Team Totals

Feb. 18, 2022 ● Memorial Coliseum (3,687)

Team

Vault

Bars