COLUMBIA, Mo. – Leading by just a tenth heading into the final rotation, No. 4 Florida gymnastics knew it needed a hit balance beam set to leave snowy Columbia, Mo., with a win over No. 11 Missouri.
The Gators got just that, using no score lower than a 9.9 to take a 197.775 – 197.625 win in front of the 1,028 who were able to dig out from the seven inches of snow that hit Columbia on Wednesday to be in the Hearnes Center Friday. The Tigers' total of 197.625 set the program's all-time high.
THIS EVENING'S MEET
Florida open with a solid uneven bars set. Freshman
Leanne Wong used a 9.95 to win her third consecutive bars title. Teammate
Trinity Thomas was runner up at 9.925.
Two Gators shared second overall on vault at 9.90 – Thomas and
Savannah Schoenherr. Missouri's Amari Celestine took the vault win at 9.925.
A pair of 9.95s by Wong and Thomas led the Gators on floor exercise. They shared first with Missouri's Hannah McCrary and Celestine.
Thomas used a 9.975 to win her third consecutive balance beam title.
Megan Skaggs and
Sloane Blakely shared second at 9.925 with MU's Sydney Schaffer and Sienna Schreiber.
In her first all-around appearance of 2022, Thomas used a 39.75 to claim her 19
th all-around win of her career.
GATOR PERFORMANCE NOTES:
- With her three event wins Friday, Thomas now moves to fourth on Florida Career Event Wins chart. She has 84 wins, moving ahead of Kytra Hunter (83).
- Wong's share of tonight's floor exercise title was first win on event
- Florida's 197.775 equals the nation's ninth highest total this season.
- Thomas' 39.75 shares the nation's No. 5 highest all-around total of 2022.
- Florida's 49.625 ties for ninth highest beam total in program history
- Collegiate bests tonight:
COACH ROWLAND SAID:
"Going into this meet, we made a commitment to several of the athletes that we were going to rest them as this is a marathon of a season. In turn, we had some new faces in different spots in lineups. Just extremely proud of the resilience of this team and the focus of continuing to taking their steps forward and doing what they can to control their controllables.
"They continued to fight all the way through to the very last performance as it was tight all the way up until that very last dismount so really proud of the team." – Florida Head Coach
Jenny Rowland
RECORDS: No. 4 Florida (7-0, 4-0 SEC)
No. 11 Missouri (5-2, 0-2 SEC)
SERIES RECORD:
Florida leads 29-1.
RANKINGS:
Florida: No. 4 on the Week 4
Road to Nationals site
Missouri: No. 11
UP NEXT:
Competition versus top-12 teams continues next Friday when No. 8 LSU visits Gainesville.
When: Friday, Feb. 11 at 5:45 p.m. ET
Venue: Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center
TV: SEC Network
Stats: Stats Link
Tickets: Florida Gymnastics Tickets
No. 4 Florida at No. 11 Missouri
Final Team Totals |
| Feb. 4, 2022 ● Hearnes Center (1,028) |
| Team |
Vault |
Bars |
Beam |
Floor |
Total |
| Florida |
49.200 |
49.500 |
49.625 |
49.450 |
197.775 |
| Missouri |
49.250 |
49.375 |
49.425 |
49.600 |
197.650 |
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