Gators gymnastics advance to Super Six

Special to GC

FORT WORTH, Texas - The University of Florida gymnastics team is on to the NCAA Super Six team final after sharing first in NCAA Semifinal I action Friday. The two-time defending NCAA champion Gators looks to add a third title in Saturday’s Super Six, which begins at 7 p.m. ET in the Fort Worth Convention Center Arena<http://www.ncaa.com/championships/gymnastics-women/nc/venue-info>. The event is streamed live on ESPN3<http://es.pn/1EiyNxN>.

For the second consecutive year, Florida tied for first in its NCAA Semifinal session. This year, Florida and Utah topped the afternoon semifinal at 197.475.

For collegiate gymnastics team scoring, six gymnasts compete and the five highest marks are used toward the team total. The tie was broken by adding the dropped score for each event to the final team total. Florida’s six-score total of 236.325 was just higher than Utah’s (236.175). As the first-place team in Semifinal I, Florida starts on balance beam for Saturday’s NCAA Super Six team final.



Florida wins its semifinal session for the fifth time in the program’s history (also won session in 2014, 2013, 2008 and 2004). That total is Florida’s fourth-highest total ever in NCAA Championships’ Semifinal competition. Joining Florida and Utah from semifinal I in Saturday’s Super Six is Stanford (197.175). Michigan (197.025), Georgia (196.60) and UCLA (196.40) rounded out the second session’s results.





Notes:

*         Kytra Hunter shared first with UCLA’s Samantha Peszek in NCAA Semifinal all-around competition at 39.60. The NCAA all-around champion is based on combining all-around results from both of Friday’s semifinals. The winner will be declared at the conclusion of NCAA Semifinal II (around 10:30pm ET). Hunter won the 2012 NCAA all-around title as a freshman.



*         The only Gator ever to post a 9.95 floor score in NCAA Semifinal competition is Kytra Hunter. She turned in the highest floor mark ever for UF in NCAA Semifinal competition as a freshman and equaled it as a senior to top Friday’s Semifinal I action.



*         Bridget’s Sloan turned in a 9.95 bars mark for the second consecutive year in NCAA Semifinal competition.



*         Freshman Alex McMurtry and Hunter were among a six-way tie for first in NCAA Semifinal I balance beam standings at 9.90



ALL-AMERICA HONORS CAREER RECORD:

Hunter’s four All-America honors earned this afternoon pushes her career total to 15 - setting the school record for All-America honors earned in NCAA competition. The previous record of 14 was set by Alaina Johnson<http://www.gatorzone.com/guides-archive/2013/gymnastics/pages/season_info/player_bios/johnson_alaina.php> during her career (2011-14.


GATORS EARNING ALL-AMERICA HONORS:
Five Gators earned a total of 13 All-America honors Friday.

2015 Gator All-Americans

Name

Event

Semi I Score

All-America team









Kennedy Baker

Floor

9.90

First

Bridgette Caquatto

Bars

9.90

Second



Floor

9.90

First

Kytra Hunter

All-Around

39.60

First



Bars

9.90

Second



Beam

9.90

First



Floor

9.95

First

Alex McMurtry

Vault

9.90

Second



Beam

9.90

First

Bridget Sloan

Vault

9.925

First



Bars

9.95

First



Beam

9.875

Second



All-Around

39.425

First









Blue denotes gymnasts advancing to April 19 NCAA Individual Event Finals


QUOTES
On the first semifinal:
“This was just an absolutely incredibly tough, competitive session and it was amazing gymnastics from all six teams, so I know - I think can probably speak for everyone here - that it was a grueling competition and exciting at the same time.

“I feel like, for us, we did good and like Kytra said, we have little things here and there to improve upon and that’s what I told the athletes before we competed, that everyone is human, everyone’s not going to be perfect every single time and it’s how you react to those little things. We had miscues here and there, but I love that we maintained our energy level and did not get affected by that mentally or physically, and then finished out really strong on beam, which was great when there was heavy pressure heading in to that event.

“I’m excited for our team, and I’m really proud of everyone up here (on the podium, who will be moving on to the Super Six).” - Florida head coach Rhonda Faehn

On the team’s strategy heading into Saturday’s Super Six
“To get some rehab - some cold tank - to get some dinner and rest; that’s the biggest thing. This team is an amazing group. They’ve battled so much adversity this entire season - kind of one thing after another - and I feel like they’re really battle tested and they’re ready for anything. I know they’re going to come out tomorrow and they’re going to compete with all their heart and just put it all out there. I said (to them), ‘You’re going to walk away happy and a winner no matter what happens as long as you leave everything out there on floor and compete with your heart.” - Florida head coach Rhonda Faehn

On the talent of the teams in the competition:
“I don’t know, obviously, who’s going to (move on from) tonight’s session, but it’s definitely going to be an incredible competition. I said this last year - but I feel even more so this year - that the talent level across the board and the potential across the board - is just outstanding.” - Florida head coach Rhonda Faehn

On Bridget Sloan’s recovery after a stumble on the floor that took her out of contention for the all-around title:
“I loved Bridget’s attitude, there’s no doubt. She has had quite the year. I just really feel for her, she’s grown a lot and has really blossomed as a leader. For her to be out with an injury that she thought was going to be a season-ending injury and to come back and do all-around for the first time again at Regionals and then tonight. She really can’t train floor that often because of the ankle, so when you don’t have the numbers (of repetitions) sometimes mistakes will happen and that happened tonight.

“But I love that she had such a (good) attitude when she stepped off the floor. She didn’t get down on herself and she was like, ‘OK, well, I tried. I tried to fix it for the second pass,’ and our athletes fed off of that because they could see that she was not affected by it. I like to say sometimes that the team goes as Bridget goes because of her dynamic personality. When they saw that she wasn’t responding in a negative way, they were like, ‘Well, all right, here we go,’ and then Kytra went up and nailed an awesome floor routine and Bridgey (Bridgette Caquatto) went up and nailed an awesome routine, so everybody had her back.

“For the rest of the competition, I just love that she just went for everything - she didn’t hold back on bars, she went for the handstand, she went for the stuck vault and the same thing on beam. Bridget’s a fighter and I’m incredibly proud of how she performed, even with the floor routine she wouldn’t have wanted. Just look at what she’s done so far this year, coming back from such a bad injury.” - Florida head coach Rhonda Faehn

On Bridget Sloan bouncing back from low floor exercise score:
“She’s an amazing competitor. She didn’t let it faze her and we didn’t let it faze us.” - freshman Alex McMurtry

On senior Kytra Hunter’s performance Friday:
“As a senior, she went out there and had great routines. We’ve always been close so it will be sad that this is the last meet of the year. She did amazing and she’s always been such a strong leader.” - freshman Alex McMurtry

On advancing to NCAA Super Six:
“We’re really excited. Yes, we’ve had a lot of injuries, adversity and had some tough competitions this year but that’s made us stronger. Rhonda always tells us to use that to fuel the fire and put that into everything we do. I think it really shows out there.” - freshman Alex McMurtry

On hitting her beam routine:
“Everyone kind of congratulated me after beam, saying “such a clutch routine”. I guess I didn’t put as much pressure on myself, which was good. I didn’t realize that we needed to hit our last routines. Yes, there was some tense moments, some nail-biting routines but overall it ended well.” - freshman Alex McMurtry

On the first session:
“Obviously, the first day is definitely a time to get the little jitters out. Just being able to know that we are a team and we have each other’s backs and no matter what the mistakes may be, everyone’s not perfect and we’re not going to have a perfect competition every meet. Just being able to boost our teammates up and having everyone relax and get back to their comfort zone - if you make a mistake, you just have to know that you have to bounce back because your scores do matter no matter what. After the first two rotations I was just really focused on being relaxed with my team and being there for them, knowing that we still have two events and anything can happen, honestly. So, just staying focused.” - senior All-American Kytra Hunter

On what it felt like to be all-arounder leader after Friday first semifinal:
“It feels great. Just being able to represent the University of Florida gymnastics, it means truly a lot more. Honestly, I’m really focused on Super Six and I’m really excited to get out there and hold up for my team. I made a mistake on vault, so being able to go back and redeem myself and do a little better on bars and beam. I know I did great for me, but there’s always another opportunity to do better.” - senior All-American Kytra Hunter

On moving ahead to Saturday’s NCAA Super Six:
(Advancing to the Super Six) is just part of the plan. Rhonda always has us focus on the present and not look to the future. Honestly, today we didn’t have that great of a meet for us. We had some errors - I especially had a huge error on floor. When Rhonda came over after the meet, I think she could see on our faces that we want to kill it tomorrow. I know she looked at me and I said ‘You don’t have to say anything. I’m so ready for tomorrow.’

Most people don’t know, but last year after I fell on beam, I was a hot mess. I walked in the locker room and I was so angry and so mad. But I remembered that NCAA has nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with Florida, but nothing to do with Bridget Sloan. So after I had my little mishap on floor, I thought ‘well, I can either fall apart or I can make sure it doesn’t happen again and move on. Just make sure tomorrow we have an even better day.’ When we were in the locker room (on bye), Kytra came over and asked if I was OK. I said ‘yep. I can’t change it right now. What I need to do is go out and hit a bar routine and a beam routine’. And that’s what I did.” - junior All-American Bridget Sloan

Beam really seemed to get the team going:
“We have such a great amount of talent on the team. We know we can do it. When we believe in ourselves, it is amazing what we can accomplish. Rhonda always said ‘be confident up on the equipment’. Today we were confident up there and it showed.” - Florida junior All-American Bridget Sloan

WORTH NOTING

*   Florida advances to its 13th NCAA Super Six team final (1994, 1997, 1998, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015). This is the 10th Super Six appearance for the Gators since Rhonda Faehn took over for the 2003 season.

UP NEXT:
NCAA Super Six team final is set to begin at 7 p.m. ET in the Fort Worth Convention Center Arena. ESPN3 will stream the meet live.



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Florida at NCAA Championships * Semifinal II
Final Team Totals

April 17, 2015 ● Fort Worth Convention Center Arena

Team

Vault

Bars

Beam

Floor

Total

Florida

49.375

49.450

49.275

49.375

197.475

Utah

49.450

49.500

49.175

49.350

197.475

Stanford

49.050

49.575

49.300

49.250

197.175

Michigan

49.175

49.225

49.250

49.375

197.025

Georgia

49.100

49.350

48.900

49.250

196.600

UCLA

49.000

49.250

49.200

48.950

196.400


End of report
Andrew Spivey
Andrew always knew he wanted to be involved with sports in some capacity. He began by coaching high school football for six years before deciding to pursue a career in journalism. While coaching, he was a part of two state semifinal teams in the state of Alabama. Given his past coaching experience, he figured covering recruiting would be a perfect fit. He began his career as an intern for Rivals.com, covering University of Florida football recruiting. After interning with Rivals for six months, he joined the Gator Country family as a recruiting analyst. Andrew enjoys spending his free time on the golf course and watching his beloved Atlanta Braves. Follow him on Twitter at @AndrewSpiveyGC.

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