Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – It was a night of perfection, near perfection and roses. A duo of "The Bachelorette" contestants – Luke Pell and James McCoy Taylor – delivered the roses. The scores came from the Gators' performance Friday as Florida defeated Missouri 197.90–196.75 in front of 6,304 at the Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center.
 

Florida Event Winners Friday
Vault:	Alex McMurtry	9.975
	Rachel Slocum	9.975
Bars:	Amelia Hundley	9.975
Floor:	Alex McMurtry	10.0
All-Around:	Amelia Hundley	39.625

The Gator Event Winners:
Four marks of 9.975 or better(!) were scored by the Gators Friday. A perfect 10.0 for Alex McMurtry's 2017 O'Connell Center debut floor exercise routine brought the crowd to its feet.
 
It was McMurtry's second 10.0 of the season, as she earned her third collegiate 10.0 on bars in the Feb. 10 dual versus Georgia. Florida now has three 10.0s this season, as Kennedy Baker collected her second collegiate 10.0 floor exercise mark on Jan. 27 versus Auburn.
 
Nearly perfect marks gave the Gators the wins on the opening two events.
 
Two Gator juniors - Alex McMurtry and Rachel Slocum – both earned the nearly perfect 9.975 mark on vault. That mark matches Slocum's collegiate best and set McMurtry's season high.
 
On uneven bars, freshman Amelia Hundley equaled her collegiate best of 9.975 to claim her second consecutive title on the event. She also posted a 9.975 on bars versus Georgia on Feb. 10.
 
A miss midway through the balance beam set put pressure on Gators' final two performers. Both turned in hit routines, including McMurtry anchoring the set with a 9.925 to take second. Missouri's Britney Ward won beam with a 9.95.
 
Florida went one-two in the all-around, with Hundley's 39.625 setting her collegiate-best total in her second all-around win. Alicia Boren was runner-up at 39.50.
 

MEET'S SPECIAL GUESTS:
Two who appeared on The Bachelorette – Luke Pell and James McCoy Taylor – served as the Gators' Social Ambassadors' Friday. They shared the meet through social media – in between selfies with many fans.
 
The pair got into the meet, chomping to floor routines and even giving pep talks. McMurtry said Taylor told her before her beam routine "You've got this!"
 
Just prior to the meet's award ceremony, Pell and Taylor presented a rose to each Gator before taking a photo with the team.
 
Pell and Taylor will perform Saturday at the Tri-County Barn Bash in Trenton.
 

10.0 NOTES:

• McMurtry now owns a total of five 10.0 marks in her Gator career – three on bars, one each on vault and floor. She is the second Gator to score a 10.0 on three different events. Only Gator Great Bridget Sloan has a "Gym Slam" – a 10.0 on each of the four events.
• Her five 10.0 puts her third on Florida's perfect score chart – 1) Bridget Sloan – 8; 2) Kytra Hunter – 6; 3) Alex McMurtry 5
• Six Gators have posted 11 perfect floor marks in the program's history. The first – by Pam Titus in 1991 - was also the first collegiate floor 10.0.
• Floor is an event McMurtry added to her competitive repertoire as a junior and it is not event she'll perform every week due to her back. Tonight was her seventh floor routine as a Gator, with four of the seven scoring a 9.9 or better.
• Five of the nation's gymnasts have recorded a floor 10.0 in 2017. Florida is the only school with two on the list as Kennedy Baker earned the mark of Jan. 27.

 
GATOR PERFORMANCE NOTES:

• Slocum claims her fifth vault title of 2017 and her fourth consecutive. Six of her seven vault performances in 2017 have score a 9.925 or better.
• McMurtry was nearly perfect on her Yurchenko double tonight, earning a 9.975. She asked to upgrade her vault to a Yurchenko double this season after performing a Yurchenko full in her first two seasons. McMurtry scored a 10.0 for the Yurchenko full in the second meet of her freshman year, but the vault's start value reset to a 9.95 starting with the 2016 season. The Yurchenko double is a 10.0 value vault and McMurtry wanted to challenge herself with the more difficult vault.
• Tonight, the nearly perfect 9.975 gets Hundley the win on bars. She also turned in that mark on Feb. 10 versus Georgia, but took second to McMurtry's 10.0.
• Freshman Rachel Gowey was runner-up on bars with her collegiate-best 9.95
• Junior Grace McLaughlin turned in a collegiate-best 9.9 on balance beam. It was a great performance, especially since she missed Monday and Tuesday training due to the flu.
• Hundley's 39.625 equals Florida's second-highest all-around total of the season. She is the first Gator freshman to win two or more all-around titles in a single season since Bridget Sloan in 2013. Hundley also posted a collegiate-best of 9.95 on floor Friday.
• Boren now has turned in her collegiate floor best of 9.95 five times in 2017. Five of her last six floor routines earned that mark. The sixth was a 9.925.
• Florida's 197.90 is the nation's No. 8 total of 2017.

 
RECORDS: Florida (7-1, 5-1 SEC); Missouri (8-7, 1-4 SEC).
 
THE SERIES: Florida leads the series 20-0.
 
HEAR FROM THE GATORS:
Opening statement:
"What a great night, I think our energy level is back to normal after last week's competition. Really some spectacular performances tonight. I think it's a good setup for the rest of the season. Lots of little things were taken care of tonight as far as details are concerned - lots of good, stuck landings. Improvement on some execution things, still have a little things here and there to work on, but that's all right because that's where we need to be right now. Not ready to peak, we still have seven more weeks left of gymnastics. As of right now, I am really proud of this team." - Florida Head Coach Jenny Rowland
 
On her perfect 10:
"I wasn't really thinking about what I was doing until I did my chomp and I could see all of Gator Nation doing my chomp with me. That got me so excited for my last pass, and I just knew I could do it. When I landed my last pass, I was just so happy.
 
"I didn't think it was going to be a 10 routine. The score wasn't what was in my mind, I was just really proud of myself for bouncing back from last week. With a 10 and my team around me, it was my favorite moment of the season so far."
 
"We want to be contenders at post season, so I think whatever brings us closer to that high all-around score gets us really, really excited. Having two 10's under my belt gives me the confidence to go out there for post season, especially on floor. I really needed that." – junior All-American Alex McMurtry
 
Thoughts on the meet:
"I just go out there and try to take it event by event. Sometimes I get overwhelmed thinking about warming up four and competing four, so I just try to listen to my coaches and Jenny [Rowland] says, 'just do what you've been doing in training'. So each event, I tried to just go up and do the best I could for each and just really focus on the little corrections I've been working on in the gym. I think I did that for the most part, still little things here and there, but really I just enjoyed the whole thing.
 
"I was doing it for the team most of all, and having my team behind me the whole time, cheering for me, I just have so much fun out there." – freshman Amelia Hundley
 
On being very close to a 10:
"I've been working in the gym and everybody's been giving me the same corrections and I think I need to work on my landing. So next week I'm really going to be thinking about that landing and thinking about getting the feet together and the chest up and the head back. And the high jump after - I think they love that too." – junior Rachel Slocum
 
On preparing for floor:
"It's like a routine. Rachel [Slocum] comes up and sets me up for it, and I get really excited for that. I get a little nervous before I go but then after I do my first half, I'm like 'okay I got this'. I show it on my face a lot, I guess, and I really just try to enjoy it. It's a minute and a half and that's what we say, just go out and have fun. The whole time I was just having fun. I love when the crowd was doing the Gator Chomp with me." – freshman Amelia Hundley
 
On performing her beam routine just after a Gator miss:
"I managed to stay on the beam, which I wasn't crazy about but I tried to take it one thing at a time to get us going again for the last couple of routines." – sophomore All-American Alicia Boren
 
On Grace McLaughlin turning in a collegiate-best 9.9 on beam after missing training due to the flu:
"I think she shined tonight. It goes to show that hard work does pay off and really that's what she's been doing in the gym. Most of them have all already experienced some illness throughout the season. Sometimes when you get something else on your mind, it's a bit of a distraction and you can just go out there and perform exactly what you know, how you know to perform and I think she did that. She wasn't questioning or doubting herself, she was just going out there and doing what she does and really, that's what she does at practice every day." - Florida Head Coach Jenny Rowland
 
On two of her brothers coming to the meet tonight:
"I've been talking about them coming for months now, and I'm sure everyone is pretty annoyed with it because I tell them every day, but I liked going to all their sporting events so I loved that they came to Gainesville to watch me today. I think they really had fun and got into it as much as we did, well kind of, as much as a brother can." – freshman Amelia Hundley
 
 
NATIONAL RANK:
Florida – Florida is No. 3 in the seventh Road to Nationals poll. The rankings now listed by regional qualifying average (top two road, home and then next two highest totals. The high is discarded, with the total of the remaining scores divided by five to compute RQS).
MU – The Tigers are No. 13 in the Road to Nationals poll.
 
UP NEXT:
The first regular-season Southeastern Conference trophy is on the line in the Gators' next meet. Florida is at No. 2 Louisiana State (11-1, 6-0 SEC) on Sunday, March 5. A win by Florida would have the SEC regular season title shared by the Gators and LSU. A win by LSU gives the Tigers sole possession of the 2017 regular-season trophy. The Tigers won 197.675 – 196.10 versus Auburn Friday.
 
The meet airs live on the SEC Network at 3:30 p.m. ET with Olympians Bart Conner, Kathy Johnson Clarke calling the action and Gator alumnae Laura Rutledge reporting from the sideline. You can also find the meet on SEC Network +.
 

No. 3 Florida versus No. 13 Missouri   Final Team Totals
Feb. 24, 2017 – Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center (6,304)
Team	Vault	Bars	Beam	Floor	Total
Florida	49.550	49.525	49.150	49.675	197.900
Missouri	49.225	49.175	49.175	49.175	196.750

 

	Florida Gators Gymnastics Florida Gators		@GatorsGym @FloridaGators
			@JennyRowlandUF (Jenny Rowland)