Gators head coach Jenny Rowland and senior Selena Harris-Miranda celebrate during last week's win at Auburn. (Photo: Hannah White/UAA Communications)
Carter's Corner: Gators Got Back up at Auburn, a Good Building Block
Thursday, January 29, 2026 | Gymnastics, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The season remains youthful and vibrant, full of hope and possibilities between now and April when the NCAA Championships take place.
If a UF professor pulled out a red pen to grade the Gators gymnastics team's early performance, it's reasonable to conclude the professor's pen would still have plenty of ink left at the end. Florida enters Friday night's home meet against No. 6 Arkansas, ranked third and undefeated.
The Gators opened with a stress-free victory at home in a quad meet. Next, they pulled out a win over No. 4 Alabama at home in their Southeastern Conference opener. And last week, in their SEC road opener, the Gators knocked off No. 11 Auburn.
But in beating the Tigers, the Gators lost sophomore Ly Bui for an extended stretch when, on her vault routine, Bui landed awkwardly on her right leg and suffered a knee injury.
Bui's fall unsettled the Gators momentarily.
Freshman Amelia Disidore, who trained at the same gym in Kansas as Bui did before they joined the Gators, followed Bui on vault and fell backwards after her landing. Forced to count Disidore's score, Kayla DiCello, Danie Ferris and Selena Harris-Miranda finished off the rotation on their feet to salvage a 48.600 team score.
From there, the Gators answered with a 49.425 on floor, matching their season high, and a 49.450 on beam, good enough to edge Auburn on the road.
The Gators' resiliency uplifted head coach Jenny Rowland by the time the final scores came in.
"Most definitely it was a learning opportunity, a growing opportunity, and something that we don't take lightly and we don't avoid,'' Rowland said this week. "We hit it head-on, we talk about it, and we help everybody work through it. And this team took the initiative themselves to meet separately as well, to speak to everybody, to see how they could even better support each other in that moment."
In the aftermath, the Gators received good news when they returned home. Bui's injury does not require surgery.
"She'll be out for about four weeks,'' Rowland said. "Really grateful that she can have the opportunity to come back and finish out the season with the Gators."
While Rowland will tinker with the vault lineup in Bui's absence, the Gators displayed the type of mental toughness that will be required later in the season if they are to win the program's first national championship since 2015.
Florida has been close during Rowland's tenure, finishing runner-up twice, finishing third twice, and placing fourth three times at the NCAA Finals. However, coming off a disappointing seventh-place finish a season ago, DiCello returned after a two-year absence from college gymnastics, sophomore Skye Blakely is fully healthy, and newcomer eMjae Frazier has added veteran poise and skill as a senior transfer from Cal.
Frazier was equally impressed at how the Gators handled Bui's injury early in the Auburn meet.
"I mean, if you see what we went through last weekend, and how we fought all the way through the end and came out on top with all that adversity going on, I think it just shows you how amazing we are and how far we've come,'' Frazier said. "This team is a national championship [caliber] team. I can't wait to see how far we go from here, because we are going to keep building up. When we hit everything, we're going to be amazing."
Following back-to-back weeks at No. 1 in the national rankings, the Gators (197.417) are tied with Alabama at No. 3 this week behind Oklahoma (197.783) and LSU (197.467). The goal is to be No. 1 at the end.
If that's where they end up, they took a step in that direction with their win at Auburn under trying circumstances.
"It was just it was an unfortunate situation when Ly went down. It just goes to show we can do hard things, and if we can continue to handle hard, better and better, the more experiences we get through," Rowland said. "When you're present, we talk about the wind's going to come to you. You're not going to worry about what's to come. You're not going to worry about the scores. You're not going to let the external factors intimidate you.
"And this team just truly stayed within our group. And it was Gators competing against the Gators, and we finished on floor and beam just like we do in practice."
If a UF professor pulled out a red pen to grade the Gators gymnastics team's early performance, it's reasonable to conclude the professor's pen would still have plenty of ink left at the end. Florida enters Friday night's home meet against No. 6 Arkansas, ranked third and undefeated.
The Gators opened with a stress-free victory at home in a quad meet. Next, they pulled out a win over No. 4 Alabama at home in their Southeastern Conference opener. And last week, in their SEC road opener, the Gators knocked off No. 11 Auburn.
But in beating the Tigers, the Gators lost sophomore Ly Bui for an extended stretch when, on her vault routine, Bui landed awkwardly on her right leg and suffered a knee injury.
Bui's fall unsettled the Gators momentarily.
Freshman Amelia Disidore, who trained at the same gym in Kansas as Bui did before they joined the Gators, followed Bui on vault and fell backwards after her landing. Forced to count Disidore's score, Kayla DiCello, Danie Ferris and Selena Harris-Miranda finished off the rotation on their feet to salvage a 48.600 team score.
From there, the Gators answered with a 49.425 on floor, matching their season high, and a 49.450 on beam, good enough to edge Auburn on the road.
The Gators' resiliency uplifted head coach Jenny Rowland by the time the final scores came in.
"Most definitely it was a learning opportunity, a growing opportunity, and something that we don't take lightly and we don't avoid,'' Rowland said this week. "We hit it head-on, we talk about it, and we help everybody work through it. And this team took the initiative themselves to meet separately as well, to speak to everybody, to see how they could even better support each other in that moment."
Those Gator Girls!!!#GoGators | @WellsFargo pic.twitter.com/mZukxGxRpE
— Gators Gymnastics (@GatorsGym) January 24, 2026
In the aftermath, the Gators received good news when they returned home. Bui's injury does not require surgery.
"She'll be out for about four weeks,'' Rowland said. "Really grateful that she can have the opportunity to come back and finish out the season with the Gators."
While Rowland will tinker with the vault lineup in Bui's absence, the Gators displayed the type of mental toughness that will be required later in the season if they are to win the program's first national championship since 2015.
Florida has been close during Rowland's tenure, finishing runner-up twice, finishing third twice, and placing fourth three times at the NCAA Finals. However, coming off a disappointing seventh-place finish a season ago, DiCello returned after a two-year absence from college gymnastics, sophomore Skye Blakely is fully healthy, and newcomer eMjae Frazier has added veteran poise and skill as a senior transfer from Cal.
Frazier was equally impressed at how the Gators handled Bui's injury early in the Auburn meet.
"I mean, if you see what we went through last weekend, and how we fought all the way through the end and came out on top with all that adversity going on, I think it just shows you how amazing we are and how far we've come,'' Frazier said. "This team is a national championship [caliber] team. I can't wait to see how far we go from here, because we are going to keep building up. When we hit everything, we're going to be amazing."
Following back-to-back weeks at No. 1 in the national rankings, the Gators (197.417) are tied with Alabama at No. 3 this week behind Oklahoma (197.783) and LSU (197.467). The goal is to be No. 1 at the end.
If that's where they end up, they took a step in that direction with their win at Auburn under trying circumstances.
"It was just it was an unfortunate situation when Ly went down. It just goes to show we can do hard things, and if we can continue to handle hard, better and better, the more experiences we get through," Rowland said. "When you're present, we talk about the wind's going to come to you. You're not going to worry about what's to come. You're not going to worry about the scores. You're not going to let the external factors intimidate you.
"And this team just truly stayed within our group. And it was Gators competing against the Gators, and we finished on floor and beam just like we do in practice."
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