Florida Gators
Southeastern Conference Championships
Gator Gymnasts 3rd at SEC Championships
Sunday, March 30, 2003 | Gymnastics
The No. 8 University of Florida gymnastics team (27-5, 5-1 SEC) took third in the Southeastern Conference Championship Saturday evening in front of a Bartow Arena crowd of 6,322. It is the third consecutive season that Florida finished third at the league meet.
Alabama claimed its fifth team title with a narrow .05 edge over two-time defending SEC champion Georgia. The Tide claimed their first crown since the 2000 season with a total of 197.575, while Georgia took second at 197.525. That difference matches the narrowest winning margin that was set in 1995, when Alabama also claimed the team title.
The Gators took third with a team total of 195.95. Louisiana State University took fourth in the final team standings at 195.65, followed by Auburn (195.025), and Kentucky (194.875) and Arkansas (194.875).
The Gators drew the optimal rotation for the meet, competing the four events in the Olympic rotation (vault, uneven bars, balance beam, floor exercise). Florida opened the meet with a 49.025 on the vault. Three tied for top Gator honors on the event at 9.85 – Erinn Dooley, Lindsey Miner, and Orley Szmuch.
Trouble was waiting for the Gators on the uneven bars, as the Gators were forced to count a major break toward their season-low total of 48.70. Florida's top bars performer was junior Kristen Stucky, who posted a 9.90, which tied for second overall. It is the fourth consecutive meet that Stucky has led UF on the uneven bars. Senior Jenny Carow finished the Gators' set with a collegiate-best mark of 9.85.
The Gators stormed back on the balance beam, turning in a team total of 49.35, just off the top beam total of 49.375 turned in by both Alabama and Georgia. Stucky and Dooley led the Gators on the event with identical marks of 9.90. They tied for second in the final beam standings. Szmuch also opened the event for the Gators with a 9.875.
"I think it was a necessity to perform beam the way we did," Stucky said. "Rhonda (Faehn) told us that we can't go to beam thinking about what happened on bars. We performed on beam like we do in practice and we were able to put the bars out of our minds.
"I was thrilled with my beam performance," she continued. "I wanted to nail my dismount and hit my Onodi (back handspring ? turn front walkover). I had a wobble in the last couple of meets and I wanted to show that I could hit this routine."
Florida had to count an out-of-bounds and a few noticeable deductions toward its floor exercise team total of 48.875. Senior Lindsey Miner led UF on the event with a 9.85. Dooley also posted a 9.825, while Carow and freshman Amanda Stroud each had marks of 9.80.
"There were some real high points in this meet – some really great, great things – but there was some rough spots as well," UF Head Coach Rhonda Faehn said. "I think that we need to learn from this. What we did on bars was uncharacteristic because we are a phenomenal bars team. The mistakes there were unusual and also detrimental to the outcome of the meet. You can't expect to count a mistake and still come out on top of the meet. I was happy with how we came back and performed what I feel was the best beam of the year. There were some problems on floor with some confusion on the lineup – it was a little distracting. I was pleased with how we competed vault.
"We were extremely prepared, had great practices leading up to the meet and warm-ups were awesome," she continued. "We have a week before regionals and we will focus in on the mistakes and analyze why they happened and go from here. We still have regionals and nationals left for this team to see that they are this good and that they can do this."
Alabama's Jeana Rice won the all-around title with a 39.60. She also shared the SEC Gymnast of the Year award with Georgia's Chelsa Byrd. Miner tied for fifth in the all-around at 39.375, earning her a spot on the All-SEC team. Carow was seventh (39.225) while Szmuch was ninth (39.075). In addition, Stucky and Dooley earned spots on the All-SEC second team based on their runner-up finishes on beam (Stucky and Dooley) and bars (Stucky).
Byrd and Alabama freshman Ashley Miles shared the floor exercise title at 9.975. Rice won the beam (9.95) and uneven bars (9.925) titles. Byrd took the vault crown with an SEC meet record mark of 10.0.
Auburn's Jeff Thompson was named the SEC Coach of the Year and LSU's April Burkholder was the SEC Freshman of the Year.
Next up, the Gators await the March 31 announcement of the NCAA Regional assignments. The NCAA Regionals are set for Saturday, April 12. The top two teams in each of the six regional sites advance to the NCAA Championships, set for April 24-26 in Lincoln, Neb.
Team Totals
| Vault | Bars | Beam | Floor | rank | Total | ||
| Alabama | 49.325 | 49.275 | 49.375 | 49.60 | 1 | 197.575 | |
| Georgia | 49.65 | 49.15 | 49.375 | 49.35 | 2 | 197.525 | |
| Florida | 49.025 | 48.70 | 49.35 | 48.875 | 3 | 195.95 | |
| LSU | 48.90 | 48.60 | 48.90 | 49.25 | 4 | 195.65 | |
| Auburn | 48.725 | 48.675 | 48.425 | 49.20 | 5 | 195.025 | |
| Kentucky | 49.00 | 48.775 | 48.70 | 48.40 | 6 | 194.875 | |
| Arkansas | 48.425 | 48.825 | 48.90 | 48.725 | 6 | 194.875 | |
