Florida Gymnasts Falls to No. 4 Utah

Monday, February 22

Salt lake City, UT

9:00 PM

Florida Gators

Utah

Florida Gymnasts Falls to No. 4 Utah

Monday, February 22, 1999 | Gymnastics

By: UF Communications

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The No. 17 University of Florida gymnastics team fell to No. 4 Utah 196.975-193.75 Monday in the ZCMI Center Shootout in front of a Huntsman Center crowd of 9,558. Utah extended its regular-season home winning streak to 149 meets – a streak which spans the last 19 seasons.

Utah freshman Theresa Kulikowski won the evening's all-around with a total of 39.60, followed by teammate Shannon Bowles (39.275). Florida's Chrissy Van Fleet was third with a 39.175. Kulikowski also won the evening's uneven bars (9.925) and floor (9.90) plus shared the balance beam crown with teammate Shannon Bowles at 9.90. Theresa Wolf claimed the vault title at 9.925 for the Utes.

Florida opened the meet on the uneven bars, where it was forced to count one fall toward its team total of 48.075. Van Fleet led UF on the bars, tying for third overall with a mark of 9.875. The Gators then moved to the vault, where they posted a solid team total of 48.675. Leading UF on the event was Van Fleet, who took second overall with a mark of 9.875. On the floor exercise, Gator junior Jaime Graziano had to be helped from the mat after landing low on her second tumbling pass. Graziano was experiencing dizziness and was pulled from UF's balance beam lineup. Florida freshman Hilary Thompson posted UF's top floor score, taking fourth with her collegiate-best mark of 9.875. On the balance beam, Florida turned in its second-highest team total of 48.40. Sophomore Teal Chiabotti, who was inserted into UF's beam lineup at the last minute for the injured Graziano, posted a season-best 9.725 to lead the Gators on the event.

"We've been very inconsistent this season, but this was probably our most consistent performance of the season," UF Head Coach Judi Markell said. "We competed more aggressively tonight. This was a good step to what we hope is a better second half of the season."

The Gators finish their three-meet road swing on Friday, Feb. 26 when they meet No. 3 Louisiana State in Baton Rouge. Meet time is set for 8 p.m. in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.