No. 3 Florida Gymnastics Wins Over No. 2 Oklahoma on Senior Night

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – What a sendoff for No. 3 Florida gymnastics eight-member senior class.

In the nation’s top meet of the weekend, Florida defeated No. 2 Oklahoma 198.10 – 197.75 Friday in a sold-out Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center crowd.

Florida’s 198.10 stands No. 6 among the nation’s team totals in 2022. Florida and Oklahoma are the only two programs with three team totals above 198. The Gators own half of the nation’s top six team totals of the season.

THIS EVENING’S MEET
Florida and Oklahoma were tied after the opening rotation with identical event totals of 49.40. It was a four-way tie for the vault title as UF’s Sloane Blakely and Trinity Thomas and OU’s Jordan Bowers and Danielle Sievers each posted a 9.925.

Florida took a 0.225 lead after posting its second-highest uneven bars total of the season (49.60). A pair of Gators shared the meet title at 9.95 – Megan Skaggs and Thomas. Florida’s Savannah Schoenherr shared third at 9.925 with OU’s Audrey Davis.

Beam was won by Thomas with her near perfect 9.975. Three Sooners shared second at 9.925 – Katherine LeVasseur, Olivia Trautman and Carly Woodard.

With just a quarter point lead heading into the final rotation, the Gators needed a hit floor exercise set to take their first win over the Sooners since 2018. Florida turned in its second-highest floor total (49.65) to take the win.

For the second consecutive Friday, Thomas was perfect on floor, earning her third 10.0 on the event this season. Fellow senior Nya Reed was second at 9.95.

Thomas posted the nation’s leading total of 39.85 to win her third all-around of 2022. A pair of Gators shared second at 39.575 – Blakely and Skaggs.

GATOR PERFORMANCE NOTES:

* This was the third consecutive marquee meet for Florida. On Feb. 11, then No. 4 Florida defeated No. 5 Louisiana State (198.15-197.825) and last Friday, then No. 2 Florida won 197.575-197.35 at No. 10 Kentucky.
* Thomas leads all of the nation’s competitors with five 10.0s in 2022 (three floor, one vault & beam).
* That’s 13 10.0s for Thomas in her Gator career – six floor, three bars & beam, one vault
* With her sweep of event wins Friday, Thomas now has 94 career event wins, which is second all-time and just one away from Bridget Sloan’s program record. Her 21st all-around win moves her into a tie for No. 4 with Kytra Hunter on Florida’s career chart.
* This was Reed’s 20th consecutive floor routine earning a 9.925 or better.
* For the second time of her career, Thomas claimed at least a share of the five event titles in a single meet. She also swept the event wins at LSU in 2021.
* Collegiate bests tonight:
* Sloane Blakely: 9.925 (vault), bars (9.90), all-around (39.575)
* Megan Skaggs: 9.95 (bars)
* Trinity Thomas: 10.0 (floor)

Tonight’s Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center crowd of 9,685 (an Exactech Arena record) helped close out home action by setting a season average attendance record of 9,108 per meet. Florida season attendance average has upped four of the last five seasons (2022: 9,108; 2020: 8,622; 2019: 8,333; 2018: 8,304).

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SENIOR DAY CELEBRATION:
It’s an expanded class this year with Super Seniors Alyssa Baumann and Megan Skaggs repeating the celebration again in 2022. They join seniors Leah Clapper, Sydney Johnson-Scharpf, Nya Reed, Savannah Schoenherr, Halley Taylor and Trinity Thomas when their Gator careers were celebrated following Friday’s competition.

Florida’s 2022 senior class notes:

* Advanced to NCAA team final in 2018 (3rd) and 2021 (4th)
* Won 2019, 2020, 2021 & 2022 Southeastern Conference regular-season trophies
* Earned 39 All-America honors
* Four SEC event titles (2018: Baumann – beam; 2019: Baumann and Skaggs – beam; Thomas -vault; 2021: Baumann – beam)
* Each of earned Academic All-Southeastern Conference honors every season of their collegiate careers

COACH ROWLAND SAID:

“This team is clutch and I think they’ve shown it throughout this entire season. Just the consistency, that confidence and using each week as an opportunity. An opportunity to learn, opportunity to get better.

“I know from this meet a lot of them are criticizing a lot of things but a lot of them have so much to be proud of. And it’s just something that they’re really good at doing – trying to be perfect and then at the same time being normal. They’ll be ready to get back in the gym next week, keep grinding and trying to get better. That’s all I can ask from this team. And they’ve done such a fantastic job of that this season.” – Florida Head Coach Jenny Rowland

RECORDS: No. 3 Florida (10-0, 6-0 SEC)
No. 2 Oklahoma (10-2, 1-0 Big 12)

SERIES RECORD:
Florida leads 18-11-1.

RANKINGS:
Florida: No. 3 on the Week 7 Road to Nationals site<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__roadtonationals.com_results_standings_season_2022_7_0_5&d=DwIFJg&c=sJ6xIWYx-zLMB3EPkvcnVg&r=o5LKAX7slotfFMyE71jI7L22NYBIi1-KbRGNSXudTPo&m=2yhKhksBYOYiJoB0-2KOzIw2FP_MdVyWFcswa-Bfpsu1ZwqPKZCyS4ftDmZOiS4e&s=F-VDSOKgFQ1DpaBxyXaUhfrpCz7LRDS74modr1tW-Wc&e= >
Oklahoma: No. 2

UP NEXT:
Conference action closes next Friday with a road meet at No. 5 Auburn and both teams are looking to finish atop Southeastern Conference regular-seasons standings.

Scenarios:

* Florida clinched at least a share of its fourth consecutive SEC regular-season title with a current 6-0 league record.
* After its home win Friday over Kentucky (197.925-197.15), Auburn upped its league record to 5-1. Auburn would share the 2022 SEC regular-season title with a win over the Gators. It would be the first shared title since the league began recognizing the regular-season champions in 2017.

When: Friday, March 4 at 8 p.m. ET
Venue: Auburn Arena<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__auburntigers.com_facilities_auburn-2Darena-2Dgymnastics_13&d=DwIFJg&c=sJ6xIWYx-zLMB3EPkvcnVg&r=o5LKAX7slotfFMyE71jI7L22NYBIi1-KbRGNSXudTPo&m=2yhKhksBYOYiJoB0-2KOzIw2FP_MdVyWFcswa-Bfpsu1ZwqPKZCyS4ftDmZOiS4e&s=H9919kGmmzwGqNyDEXFGvt9KU-Cq9TR32Ieo6dB10Gc&e= >
Streaming Video: SEC Network +
Tickets: Sold out

No. 3 Florida versus No. 2 Oklahoma
Final Team Totals

Feb. 25, 2022 ● Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center (9,685 – Exactech Arena record)

Team

Vault

Bars

Beam

Floor

Total

Florida

49.400

49.600