The No. 3 Florida gymnastics team (1-1, 0-1 SEC) dropped its 2013 Southeastern Conference season opener Friday at No. 8 LSU (2-0, 1-0 SEC) in front of a Pete Maravich Assembly Center crowd of 4,074. The Gators turned in the same total as last week, 196.575, but LSU outscored them with a 196.875 to take the first win over the Gators in the last 10 meetings. Friday’s meet is the start of nine consecutive dual meets for Florida versus teams ranked in the nation’s preseason top 25.
Friday's meet will air tape-delayed on SUN Sports Jan. 19 at 5 p.m.
Going into the final rotation, the Gators held a 0.25 edge over the Tigers, but knew they needed a strong final rotation on balance beam to hold the lead as the Tigers were finishing on their top event. Last week in their season opener, the Tigers turned in the nation’s high event total of 49.525 on the floor exercise. Misses by freshman Bridget Sloan and senior All-American Marissa King forced Florida to count a fall toward its final beam total of 48.775. The Tigers didn’t go as big as last week on floor, posting a 49.325 Friday, but it gave them the final winning three-tenths margin.
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