No. 4 Florida Gymnastics Closes Regular-Season Action with Senior Night Win

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 4 Florida gymnastics closed regular-season action with a win in Gators Senior Night presented by Auto ER in front of 8,133 at the Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.

The Gators took the win at 197.90 – the team’s fourth-highest mark of 2024. No. 18 North Carolina State was second at 196.825, followed by Iowa State (195.825) and Long Island University (192.025).

THIS EVENING’S MEET
Freshmen led off and anchored Florida’s vault lineup with the team’s leading marks. Skylar Draser started off the competition with a 9.95 on vault – equaling her collegiate best to claim her first collegiate event win. Danie Ferris’ anchoring 9.925 was just off her collegiate best. Another freshman, Anya Pilgrim, also scored a vault 9.90.

Junior Leanne Wong was oh-so-close to perfection in her only event of the evening. She led Florida on uneven bars with the winning mark of 9.975. Sloane Blakely and Victoria Nguyen opened Florida’s bars lineup with season-bests of 9.90.

A pair of 9.925s by Blakely and freshman Alyssa Arana shared the balance beam win Friday. Blakely’s mark equals her season best for the third time. Arana’s mark in the anchor position equals the second-highest by a Gator in their beam lineup debut.

Marks of 9.9 or better were used toward UF’s 49.60, the team’s third-highest floor exercise total of the season. A quad of 9.925s by Blakely, Morgan Hurd, Ellie Lazzari and Nguyen led the Gators to share second in the individual floor standings.

Blakely’s season-best 39.625 won her second all-around title of her career. Nguyen was second at 39.475.

Event winners:
Skylar Draser, UF 9.950 Vault
Leanne Wong, UF 9.975 Uneven Bars
Alyssa Arana, UF 9.925 Balance Beam
Sloane Blakely, UF 9.925
Chloe Negrete, NC St 9.925
Ella Schell, ISU 9.950 Floor Exercise
Sloane Blakely 39.625 All-Around

200+ WINS FOR JENNY ROWLAND:
Friday’s quad meet win pushes Florida Head Coach Jenny Rowland’s all-meetings record to 201-36-1 in her nine seasons with the Gators. Rowland started her head coaching career in 2016.

She is the only Southeastern Conference coach with 200 wins.

GATORS SENIOR NIGHT:
The careers of Florida’s four seniors – Chloi Clark, Ellie Lazzari, Michala Magee and Victoria Nguyen – plus graduate Payton Richards were celebrated in a post-meet ceremony.

Florida Gators Seniors Class Notes:

* Advanced to NCAA team final in 2021 (4th), 2022 (2nd) and 2023 (2nd)
* Won 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 & 2024 Southeastern Conference regular-season trophies
* Swept 2022 & 2023 Southeastern Conference regular-season and Championship meet titles
* Earned three All-America honors (Lazzari, Nguyen & Richards)
* One SEC event title (2021: Lazzari – beam)
* Each earned Academic All-Southeastern Conference honors during their collegiate careers

GATOR PERFORMANCE NOTES:

* Sloane Blakely wins her second all-around title of her career. Her first all-around title came in the opening meet of her freshman year on Jan. 7, 2022. Her winning total of 39.625 is just off her collegiate high of 39.65.
* Leanne Wong won the 20th bars title of her career Friday and leads Florida this season with 20 event titles. This was her third consecutive 9.975 uneven bars mark.
* Two Gator freshmen won their first collegiate event titles Friday. Skylar Draser’s 9.95 to start off the meet topped the following 23 vault competitors. Alyssa Arana anchored the balance beam lineup with a 9.925 to share the win with Sloane Blakely and NC State’s Chloe Negrete.
* Alyssa Arana’s 9.925 equals the second-highest beam lineup debut score in UF history. Sloane Blakely set the beam debut high of 9.95 in the 2022 opener. Sydney Johnson-Scharpf also had a 9.925 in her beam debut vs LSU (1-24-20)
* Tonight’s crowd of 8,133 gives Florida a regular-season average of 8,702 – third highest in program history.

* Five Gators equaled or set collegiate bests Friday:
* Alyssa Arana – 9.925 (beam)
* Skylar Draser -9.95 (vault)
* Danie Ferris – 9.85 (floor)
* Ellie Lazzari – 9.925 (floor)
* Victoria Nguyen – 9.925 (floor)

FLORIDA COACH JENNY ROWLAND SAID:
“It was a great send-off for our senior class. Our intention of the week was appreciation. This was an evening we could celebrate some incredible seniors for everything they’ve done to pave their own path and to excel in and out of the gym. Extremely grateful for all of our seniors who we were able to celebrate and honor this evening.

“Appreciation also for something this team gets to do in front of an amazing crowd. Want to express a lot of appreciation to Gator Nation for showing up for Gators gymnastics this season.

“It was a casual 197.90 tonight. We had a lot of Gators going in different spots in lineups. That seems to be the trend in this regular-season and they keep showing up and stepping up. They keep owning whatever is put in front of them. Those are valuable lessons that this team can take away from tonight and from this regular season. Extremely proud of this team when looking at where they started and where they are today. Looking forward to what should be a very memorable and exciting post-season.”- Florida Head Coach Jenny Rowland

RECORDS:
Florida (17-1, 6-1 SEC)
Iowa State (8-12, 2-2 Big 12)
LIU (8-18, 0-3 EAGL)
NC State (16-6, 6-0 ACC)

THE SERIES:
Florida leads Iowa State 20-1
Florida leads LIU 1-0
Florida leads NC State 33-1

NATIONAL RANK:
Florida – No. 4 in the March 11 Road to Nationals standings<https://roadtonationals.com/results/standings/season/2024/10/0/5>
NC State- No. 18

UP NEXT:
Postseason action start at the 43rd Annual Southeastern Conference Championships.

When: Saturday, March 23
Session I (Seeds 5-8): 3:30 p.m. ET
Session II (Seeds 1-4; includes Florida): 8 p.m. ET
Venue: Smoothie King Center <https://www.smoothiekingcenter.com/events/detail/sec-gymnastics-championship-1> in New Orleans, La.
Network: SEC Network
Video: Session I<https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/c06c99d2-c6eb-4323-880e-3ff84be07004>
Session II<https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/75bbb922-0314-4a22-82d6-711e1b2d46b5>
Awards Ceremony<https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/3986a3ba-75ee-46a6-a9b5-1af9934286fe>
Live Scoring: Session I<https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=523964>
Session II<https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=523965>
Tickets: $25 – $55<https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/1B005F2CC4904FFA>