Gymnastics: #2 UF loses to #1 Oklahoma

[no1g8r]

Tonight's Gator Gymnastics meet features the top 2 teams in the country, #2 Florida at #1 Oklahoma on Fox Sports Pacific at 8pm Eastern time. For those of you in the Gainesville area, it will be aired live on Fox College Sports (Channel 273). I'll be watching on my FireTV via the Fox Sports Go app, available for free with my Hulu+ Live subscription.

This meet is the away side of a home-and-home schedule that featured Florida giving Oklahoma their only loss of the year last year, with Florida edging Oklahoma by a slim .025 advantage, 198.150-198.125

The meet will be held in Oklahoma's Lloyd Nobel center, where the Sooners average a home crowd of 4,165, less than half of the 8,531 home attendance the Gators are used to, and far less than the 12,093 who attended Florida's only other away meet of the year thus far, against LSU.

At this point in the season, gymnastics rankings are based on average of each school's meet scores. Florida edged out UCLA for the #2 spot by a slim .004 points on the strength of Florida's 197.650 score last week. Oklahoma has a .221 lead on the Gators for the number 1 ranking.

Heading into this meet, the head-to-head rankings for the individual events are:

Vault: Oklahoma #1, Florida #10
Bars: Florida #1, Oklahoma #2
Beam: Oklahoma #1, Florida #2
Floor: Florida #2, Oklahoma #4

Florida is paying a high price on vault rankings due to an abysmal (for them) opening night vault performance with a 48.925 score. If that score were thrown out, the Gator's vault average since is a 49.458, which would be good enough for the number 1 vault ranking (Oklahoma is in 1st with a 49.450 average on vault)

The meet will pit Oklahoma's top all-around performer, Junior Maggie Nichols, with an all-around average of 39.700, against Florida's top all-arounder, 17-year old Freshman sensation Trinity Thomas, whose all-around average is 39.608

Florida's Trinity Thomas earned SEC Gymnast of the week honors with her 39.70 all-around performance against Kentucky. Florida's Megan Skaggs picked up the SEC Specialist of the Week title with her 9.95 score on bars.

For fans of women's gymnastics, this meet is the features the best-of-the-best, and should be a great display of clean technique and solid artistry. For even casual fans, the meet should provide a close competition of some of the best gymnasts in America

 

[no1g8r]

They just announced that Oklahoma star all-a rounder Maggie Nichols will not be competing on floor or vault, resting her foot. The Sooners are deep, so I don’t expect a huge impact on their overall score, but it might be an equalizer on the night.

 

[no1g8r]

Florida Leads after the first rotation by a tenth of a point, 49.675 - 49.575 !

Trinity Thomas with a 9.975 on bars, which means that she received a 10 from one judge and a 9.95 from the other.

Go Gators!

 

[no1g8r]

after 2 rotations, Oklahoma takes the lead in the strength of a 10.0 and a 9.975 on bars. Unfortunately, the Gators didn’t stick their vault landings, and thus, the difference.

 

[JDW]

What’s the total difference so far?

 

[no1g8r]

After 3 rotations, the Gators close the gap to .075, trailing OU 148.50 to 148.425 The Sooners had a fall and a near fall (fell onto the beam, without touching the floor), while Florida had a great floor exercise.

It all comes down to beam for Florida vs Floor for the Sooners. Go Gators!

 

[Thick&ThinG8r]

We seem to be struggling on vault compared to most years.

 

[no1g8r]

Well, despite the gators scoring a nice 49.60 on beam, Oklahoma scores their highest ever score on floor, with a 49.825 . I’m not one to complain about the judges, but even the announcer, an Oklahoma grad, commented that some of the Sooners floor scores were “a little high, but they’ll take it.”

Overall, Florida has it’s highest score of the season, with a 198.025, losing by 3 tenths to Oklahoma’s 198.325, also their highest score of the season.

Despite the loss, this will be a great away score to factor in to the regional qualifying scores, which will determine rankings with a couple of weeks. All in all a good meet for the Gators, and a tough one to not get the win in.

 

[no1g8r]

We seem to be struggling on vault compared to most years.

We’re averaging about .20 below last year’s average, and .40 below the vault average from 2 years ago. Not having an Alex McMurty or Kennedy Baker this year, both capable of putting up a 10 on vault, and consistently putting up a 9.90+, definitely is holding the vault scores back. That said, the team has the skill to stick some vaults and put up 9.90+ scores, just haven’t been doing it yet.

 

[Gator by the Sea]

We definitely miss the consistency of Alex McMurtry this year, but I sense that Trinity Thomas will soon blossom into our next superstar. We may not win it all this year (although we still have enough talent to go to the Super 6 again), but the future looks bright.

 

[Musclepug]

Had to Google the result,

No. 1 Sooners Soar to Victory over No. 2 Florida

 

[no1g8r]

Had to Google the result,
No. 1 Sooners Soar to Victory over No. 2 Florida

It was in post #8, but I should have made it the lead paragraph rather than the 2nd paragraph, but thanks for the link, even if it is completely reporting on the Sooners. Here's a link to an article that talks more about how the Gators did:

#1 Oklahoma wins over #2 Gator gymnasts in high scoring meet

The meet was even better to watch than to read about.

Overall, Florida has it’s highest score of the season, with a 198.025, losing by 3 tenths to Oklahoma’s 198.325, also their highest score of the season.

 

[Musclepug]

Thank you, I buzzed right over #8

 

[no1g8r]

Thank you, I buzzed right over #8

No worries. I'll make it more obvious next time.