BATON ROUGE, La. – No. 2 Louisiana State claims the 2017 Southeastern Conference regular-season gymnastics title after its 198.15-196.60 win over No. 3 Florida Sunday afternoon in front of a Pete Maravich Assembly Center crowd of 12,609 – the third-largest crowd in LSU gymnastics history.
Sunday's meet decided the first SEC regular-season gymnastics champion. This title, as with the other SEC sports that award a regular-season trophy (e.g – baseball, basketball, soccer, softball, volleyball), is based on league win-loss record. The Tigers were unbeaten in 2017 league action, claiming the title with a 7-0 SEC record. Florida will take second in the final SEC standings with a 5-2 record.
This is the second league gymnastics title for the Tigers, as LSU won the first SEC Championship meet, which was held in Baton Rouge in 1981.
Sunday's Meet for the Gators:
The Gators didn't have their best Sunday, as the team total was their low of the season. Breaks, extra steps and being forced to count a fall for the first time in 2017 took away from the Gators' scoring potential.
Florida opened the meet on uneven bars. Junior
Kennedy Baker led UF on the event, hitting her collegiate high of 9.90 for the third time this season. That mark took third on the event overall. The Gators' total of 48.925 snapped the program's 33-meet streak of posting a 49.00-plus bars team total. That put the Gators behind the Tigers by 0.70 after the first rotation, a difficult gap to make up against the nation's second-ranked team.
The Gators' high event total of the day, 49.375, came on vault. Junior
Alex McMurtry anchored the Gators' vault lineup with a 10.0 to share the afternoon's event title with LSU's Ashleigh Gnat. It was McMurtry's first 10.0 on the event of the season and Gnat's second.
Sophomore
Alicia Boren's 9.925 led the Gators on floor exercise, which placed her in a four-way tie for second in the final floor standings. A fall on the event was not part of UF's event total, as UF posted a 49.125.
Bobbles and balance checks in a few routines dinged Florida's beam total (49.175). McMurtry anchored the Gators' beam lineup with a team-high 9.90. The mark shared third overall in the final beam standings.
The Gators took one-two in the final all-around standings. Boren claimed her fourth title of the season at 39.55. The reigning SEC Freshman of the Week,
Amelia Hundley, shared second with LSU's Myia Hambrick at 39.425.
10.0 NOTES:
- McMurtry now owns a total of six 10.0 marks in her Gator career – three on bars, two on vault and one on floor. She is the first Gator to score a 10.0 on three different events in a single season – vault, bars and floor.
- Her six 10.0s moves her into a tie for second on Florida's perfect score chart – 1) Bridget Sloan – 8; 2) Alex McMurtry and Kytra Hunter – 6
- Five Gators have posted 10 perfect vault marks in the program's history. McMurtry's 10.0 Sunday was the first by a Gator on the event since she opened 2015 home action with a perfect mark versus Auburn. That 10.0 came from a Yurchenko full twist and today's was the more difficult Yurchenko double full. The Yurchenko full start value reset to a 9.95 beginning with the 2016 season. McMurtry told the Gator coaching staff she wanted to compete the Yurchenko double this season to challenge herself.
- McMurtry actually has twice recorded perfect vault scores in 2017. At the Jan. 20 North Carolina meet, McMurtry received a 9.95 for her Yurchenko full – the highest score that vault can receive.
GATOR PERFORMANCE NOTES:
- Boren's all-around win was her fourth of the season and the fifth of her career. She's turned in all-around totals of 39.50 or better five times in 2017 – including each of the last four meets.
- Baker has posted a collegiate-best 9.90 bars mark four times, including three times in 2017.
- Hundley's consistent performances on all events this season has led to her strong all-around finishes. She's finished among the top three all-arounders in eight of nine meets, including two wins.
- Each of Boren's last seven floor routines has scored a 9.925 or better.
EVENT WINNERS:
Vault:
Alex McMurtry, UF 10.0
Ashleigh Gnat, LSU 10.0
Bars: Sarah Finnegan, LSU 9.925
Lexie Priessman, LSU 9.925
Beam: Erin Macadaeg, LSU 9.95
Floor: Ashleigh Gnat, LSU 9.95
AA:
Alicia Boren, UF 39.55
RECORDS: Florida (7-2, 5-2 SEC); LSU (12-1, 7-0 SEC).
THE SERIES: Florida leads the series 69-35.
HEAR FROM THE GATORS:
On today's performance:
"Today definitely wasn't our best performance by any means. However, I think there is some good that can come out of it. We still have new faces competing who are getting more confident day in and day out. We haven't shown our premier lineup yet. There were some very good performances by some of the athletes. I really feel that
Alicia Boren has gone into every meet and has done her job. That is a testament to what she's been doing in the gym.
Amelia Hundley – another solid performance from her. Really proud of both of those gymnasts doing all-around.
Alex McMurtry did her third all-around of the year. Yes, she struggled a bit on bars but came back super strong on vault with a 10.0. Super proud of this team and what they've accomplished this year.
"Yesterday was a long day, with an unexpected extension of our travel schedule. That's not a reason for the mistakes we had today, but perhaps it took away some of the sharpness of our performance.
"I think after the mistakes, the team was more conservative than they've been in the past. That will be something we will continue to work on in training. We really haven't had a lot of adversity this season. It is something to learn from and move forward." - Florida Head Coach
Jenny Rowland
On her performance today:
"I was very happy with how I did. I got my landing on vault, which I haven't been doing lately. I've been working very hard on my bars dismount in training and that went well. My floor was fairly normal and on beam, I'm working more and more toward putting it all together. So I was happy with how I performed today." – sophomore All-American
Alicia Boren
Thoughts on the meet:
"We definitely didn't have our best meet but I think it will motivate us to keep working harder to get those routines we know we can perform.
"We were almost a bit too uptight today. I think we need to relax and go back to what we know how to do, which is to have fun and enjoy it." – freshman
Amelia Hundley
On Alex McMurtry bouncing back from a miss on bars to scoring a 10.0 on vault:
"She's an amazing athlete and an amazing teammate. She's someone that everyone – the team, the coaches – can rely on. Everyone makes mistakes. No one can be perfect every time. What she did is gold." – Florida Head Coach
Jenny Rowland
NATIONAL RANK:
Florida – Florida is No. 3 in the eighth
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).
LSU – The Tigers are No. 2 in the Road to Nationals poll.
UP NEXT:
Gator Gymnastics Senior Night is March 10 as the Gators play host to No. 26 West Virginia. Meet time is set for 6:45 p.m. ET in the Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center.
Here's what is planned for Friday:
Senior Night - Stay post-meet to celebrate
Claire Boyce's Gator career.
Giveaway - 1,000 commemorative pint glasses
UF Alumni Association Night - Present a valid UFAA ID at the ticket office & receive BOGO general admission tickets!
Youth Art Gallery - Local elementary schools are invited to submit student's Gators themed artwork. Select pieces will be displayed in the Youth Art Gallery at the meet.
Gator Boosters Night - Gator Booster members receive BOGO general admission tickets by showing their Booster Membership card at the Ticket Office.
GIF Booth - Fans can create their very own custom GIF at the GIF Booth! It's just like a photo booth, but you can create GIFs to text, post, and share. And be sure to use #GoGators!
The meet will also stream on
SEC Network +.
Visit the
Gators ticket site for complete information about getting tickets for Friday's meet.
|
Single Meet |
| Reserved Adult Tickets: |
$8 |
| Reserved Youth (12 & under) |
$8 |
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| General Admission Adult |
$5 |
| General Admission Youth (12 & under) |
Free |
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| UF Students w/ Gator1 ID |
Free |
No. 3 Florida at No. 2 LSU
Final Team Totals |
| March 5, 2017 – Pete Maravich Assembly Center (12,609) |
| Team |
Vault |
Bars |
Beam |
Floor |
Total |
| LSU |
49.625 |
49.425 |
49.475 |
49.625 |
198.150 |
| Florida |
49.357 |
48.925 |
49.175 |
49.125 |
196.600 |
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