AUBURN, Ala. – No. 7 Florida gymnastics opened 2024 Southeastern Conference action with a win Friday at No. 12 Auburn in front of a sellout Neville Arena crowd of 9,121.
Florida posted a season-high 197.325 Friday while Auburn turned in a 197.025.
Florida junior All-American
Leanne Wong won three events Friday. Wong won her all-around debut (39.625) and also used a season-high 9.95 to claim the uneven bars win. She turned in a 9.95 to win her first floor exercise performance of 2024.
TONIGHT'S MEET
Florida opened with a season-high 49.40 on uneven bars. Two marks from the Gators who competed in the 2023 World Championships –
Leanne Wong (9.95) and
Anya Pilgrim (9.90) – took the meet's top two spots. In addition to Pilgrim, freshman
Gabby Disidore opened UF's bars lineup with a collegiate best 9.875 to share third with AU's Gabby McLaughlin and Cassie Stevens.
Florida was led on vault by its opening (
Bri Edwards) and anchor (
Pilgrim) performers. Both turned in collegiate bests of 9.875 to share second overall with Auburn's Stevens. Sophia Groth opened Auburn's lineup with a 9.90 for her Yurchenko full to win the vault title.
The Gators led by 0.350 at the meet's midway point.
Florida's floor lineup opened with 9.9s from both
Lori Brubach and
Victoria Nguyen. The mark reset Brubach's collegiate best for the second consecutive week. Wong was one of three Gators making their 2024 floor debut tonight, anchoring the lineup with her winning mark of 9.95.
Sloane Blakely and Wong tied for third at 9.875 on balance beam to close the meet. Auburn's Gabby McLaughlin won the beam title at 9.95 and Stevens took second at 9.90.
In her first appearance in all events this season, Wong claimed her 10
th career all-around win at 39.625.
GATOR PERFORMANCE NOTES:
- Leanne Wong is the 14th in Florida gymnastics 52 season history with 10 or more all-around wins.
- Three Gators made their 2024 floor exercise debuts Friday – Ellie Lazzari (9.85), Sloane Blakely (9.825) and Wong (9.95). It was Lazzari's first floor performance since injuring her Achilles warming up floor at Georgia in January of 2022.
- Edwards upped her collegiate vault best to 9.875 tonight. She turned her previous high of 9.85 three times - including in last Friday's opener.
- For the second consecutive week, Brubach led off Florida's floor lineup with a collegiate best. In Florida's Jan. 12 opener, Brubach raised her floor best to 9.875. Tonight she upped mark to 9.90.
- Florida 197.325 is the fifth highest road opener in program history, just a tick behind the 197.35 at Alabama in 2023.
- Six Gators equaled or set collegiate bests Friday:
HEAR FROM THE GATORS:
"First road meet for the Gators this season. Really proud of this team considering all the obstacles, challenges and everything that faced them tonight. We have a new team with a lot of freshmen competing in their first away meet. The tempo and the rhythm is a lot different than being at home. The crowd here was phenomenal. So learning to use the energy here and letting it benefit them was really important.
"Overall, we got some more kinks out. Great road win. Hats off to Auburn for a fantastic meet tonight and a great fight. We look forward to continuing to build with this team. That was what we were really trying to focus on this week, trying to get that one percent better tonight. We had some collegiate bests. We had some new competitors on different events. Really proud of the adversity this team fought through." Florida Head Coach
Jenny Rowland
On how her vault is going this season:
"It is going great. I feel so much more confident, much more sure of myself and so proud to contribute to this team more.
"I was really just trusting myself, staying present in the moment and knowing that I could make those corrections. It wasn't a matter of
if, it was a matter of
how." – junior
Bri Edwards
On her floor performance:
"My floor is improving. Obviously, there is still a lot to work on but I'm getting that one percent better every single day. I'm also just having so much fun. My confidence is going up so high." – junior
Morgan Hurd
RECORDS: Florida (4-0, 1-0 SEC), Auburn (1-4, 0-2 SEC)
THE SERIES: Florida leads Auburn 93-10-1.
NATIONAL RANK:
Florida – No. 7 in the
Jan. 15 Road to Nationals standings
Auburn – No. 12
UP NEXT:
Florida welcomes back Gators spanning from the program's first season to 2023 next Friday for Alumni Night presented by GFL. Alabama (4-0, 1-0 SEC) closed a two-meet SEC homestand Friday with 197.525 tie with No. 4 Arkansas.
When: Friday, Jan. 26 at 6:45 p.m. ET
Venue: Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center
TV: ESPN2 with U.S. Olympians John Roethlisberger and Gator Great
Bridget Sloan calling the action. Taylor Davis provides sideline reports.
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Promotions: First 500 fans get a Gator gymnastics hair clip
Tickets: Sold out.
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No. 7 Florida at No. 12 Auburn
Final Team Totals |
| Jan. 19, 2024 ● Neville Arena (9,121 - sellout) |
| Team |
Vault |
Bars |
Beam |
Floor |
Total |
| Florida |
49.225 |
49.400 |
49.225 |
49.475 |
197.325 |
| Auburn |
49.100 |
49.175 |
49.300 |
49.450 |
197.025 |
