3 NCAA Championships ● 10 SEC Championships ● 8 with 19 NCAA Individual Titles MEET INFORMATION MEET 1 Morgantown, W.Va. Date: Friday, Jan. 5 / 7 p.m. ET Florida Gators West Virginia Mountaineers Site: WVU Coliseum (14,000) Head Coach: Jenny Rowland Head Coach: Jason Butts Television: None Career (beginning 3rd Career (beginning 7th season): Video: MountaineerTV season): 29-5 78-52-1 Live Stats: Mountaineer Sports At UF: same At WVU: same Tickets: $1 for all tickets 2017: 14-3 / 5-2 SEC (2017) 2017: 13-10 / 3rd in Big 12 Series Record UF leads 31-1 (last meeting: UF won 2017 NCAA Finish: 3rd 2017 NCAA Finish: 3rd in Morgantown Region (all-time): 197.60-196.10 (3-10-17 in Gainesville) What’s Happening? GATOR SOCIAL Preseason No. 2 Florida starts the 2018 season Friday with a dual meet at West Virginia. These teams met for Florida Gators Gymnastics the 2017 regular-season finale for both teams, with then No. 3 Florida claiming a 197.60-196.10 win over then No. Florida Gators 22 West Virginia in front of an Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center crowd of 5,285. @GatorsGym Florida opens on the road for the fifth consecutive season. Four of the top six season-opening totals came since @FloridaGators 2014 (197.10 – 2017 at NC State, 196.925 – 2015 at Ball State, 196.825 – 2016 at Texas Woman’s University @JennyRowlandUF and 196.65 – 2014 at UCLA. Florida’s 197.10 in 2017 was just a fraction away from the all-time high (197.125) set gatorsgym in 2008 home season opening action. Florida opened the season on the road 14 times since 1980, owning a floridagators road-season opening record of 22-16 in that span. Florida Head Coach Jenny Rowland begins her third season with the Gators in 2018. In her first two seasons, the Gators won the 2016 Southeastern Conference title and reached the NCAA Super Six team final both years, Florida Communications Contact: finishing fourth (2016) and third (2017). Seven Gators collected 24 All-America honors in NCAA competition in the Mary Howard last two years, including winning five NCAA event titles (Bridget Sloan: 2016 all-around, uneven bars, balance beam; Alex McMurtry: 2017 all-around, uneven bars). Phone: 352-375-4683 x6100 / Cell: 352-317-5855 [email protected] Email: The Gators were third in 2017 NCAA Super Six competition, won the NCAA Gainesville Regional and was runner- up in both Southeastern Conference regular-season and championship action. McMurtry won the NCAA all- around with a NCAA semifinal record of 39.8125 and was among a six-way tie for the uneven bars title. McMurtry DID YOU KNOW received several awards, including the Honda Award (awarded to top collegiate gymnast), SEC Gymnast and Four of Florida’s top six season-opening team scores have come SEC Gymnastics Scholar-Athlete of Year. She is the first Gator to receive the NCAA Elite 90 award, given to the since the 2014 season. student-athlete with the highest grade point average at each of the 90 NCAA Championship sites. Florida’s 2017 total of 197.10 is just a fraction away from the high Two Gators who posted 10.0 marks in 2017 return for their senior season – Kennedy Baker (floor) and McMurtry of 197.125 set in 2008 home season-opening action. (vault, bars, beam). Those two are joined by three additional returning All-Americans – senior Rachel Slocum, junior Alicia Boren and sophomore Amelia Hundley. Florida’s Top 12 Season Opening Scores Date UF Score Meet Site West Virginia was 13-10 in 2017 and was third in the Big 12 Championships. The Mountaineers return 10 1/11/08 197.125 Illinois-Chicago H letterwinners, including junior Kirah Koshinski who earned 2017 National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics 1/8/17 197.100 NC State A Coaches (NACGC) All-America regular season honors for vault and senior Zaakira Muhammad who earned floor 1/11/15 196.925 Ball State A All-America honors at the 2017 NCAA Championships. 1/7/11 196.925 Nebraska H 1/8/16 196.825 Texas Woman’s U A Of the 12 teams at the 2017 NCAA Championships final site, only Florida returns all 24 routines competed. 1/11/14 196.650 UCLA A Bolstering Florida’s lineup options in 2018 is the addition of four freshmen. Three bring experience from the U.S. 1/4/13 196.575 Ball State H national team program. This trio brings the number of gymnasts with all-around potential on 2018 Gator roster to eight. Alyssa Baumann was part of the U.S.’s gold-medal team at the 2014 World Championships. She qualified 1/11/03 196.575 Super Six Challenge A for the 2016 Olympic Trials, but an elbow injury while preparing for the Trials led Baumann to defer enrolling at 1/5/07 196.550 Super Six Challenge A UF until fall 2017 as she recovered. Megan Skaggs joined current Gator sophomores Rachel Gowey and 1/9/09 196.500 Oklahoma H Hundley on the 2015 Pan America Games gold-medal team. Jazmyn Foberg graduated high school in three 1/6/12 196.025 NC State A years, allowing her enroll at UF in fall of 2017. Foberg is a two-time member of the U.S. Junior National Team, 1/9/04 196.950 Super Six Challenge A representing the U.S. in Italy and Japan in 2015. Nicole Webb trained at the same club, Sonshine Gymnastics, as senior Rachel Slocum. Webb was second on beam and fifth on floor at the 2017 North Carolina Level 10 State Championships. This class ranks No. 1 on the 2018 CollegeGymFans.com Top Recruiting Classes list. In the last nine years, Florida’s recruiting classes have ranked No. 1 six times and No. 2 twice. MEET COACH ROWLAND 2018 GATOR GYMNASTICS ROSTER Jenny Rowland, one of the nation’s rising coaching talents, begins her third season as NAME EVTS HT CL HOMETOWN (CLUB) University of Florida’s head gymnastics Sierra Alexander V, FX 5-7 SO Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (West Broward Gymnastics Academy) coach. Rowland is the seventh head coach Kennedy Baker AA 5-0 SR Dallas, Texas (Texas Dreams) for the Gator program, which is in its 46th Alyssa Baumann AA 5-1 FR Dallas, Texas (WOGA) season in 2018. Alicia Boren AA 4-11 JR Franklin Lakes, N.J. (North Stars Gymnastics Academy) Maegan Chant AA 5-3 SO Waterdown, Ontario (World Class Gymnastics) Amanda Cheney V, BB 5-5 JR Orlando, Fla. (Orlando Metro) She shared the 2016 Southeastern Conference Coach of the Jazmyn Foberg AA 5-2 FR Bayville, N.J. (MG Elite) Year honor with Arkansas’ Mark Cook. She joins volleyball’s Rachel Gowey AA 5-1 SO Urbandale, Iowa (Chow’s Gymnastics) Mary Wise (1991) as a Gator coach who claimed SEC Coach of Amelia Hundley AA 5-5 SO Hamilton, Ohio (Cincinnati Gymnastics) the Year honors in their first season at UF. Grace McLaughlin BB, FX 5-2 SR Allen, Texas (WOGA) Alex McMurtry AA 5-3 SR Midlothian, Va. (Richmond Olympiad Club) Rowland’s experiences from the sport’s highest level are the Megan Skaggs AA 5-3 FR Marietta, Ga. (Gymnastics Academy of Atlanta) same as many current Gators. She is a former U.S. National Rachel Slocum V, FX 5-3 SR Holly Springs, N.C. (Sonshine NC/Eastern Michigan) Team member, a collegiate All-American and was named a Nicole Webb UB, BB, FX 5-2 FR Morrisville, N.C. (Sonshine NC) 2015 National Collegiate Assistant of the Year. Staff: Pronunciation Guide: Rowland is a Category 3 International Brevet level judge. She Head Coach: Jenny Rowland Sierra Alexander – see-er-uh served on the judging panel for the 2008, 2012 and 2016 U.S. Assistant Coaches: Adrian Burde & Owen Field Alyssa Baumann – Bow-man Olympic Trials. Volunteer Coach: Jeremy Miranda Alicia Boren – uh-LEE-sh uh Bore-en Student Coach: Vanasia Bradley Vanasia Bradley - vuh-NAY-suh Rowland’s Coaching Career: Assistant to the Head Coach: Brittany Arlington Amanda Cheney – Chain-ee Managers: Tory Cohen & Casey McLaughlin Jazmyn Foberg – FOE-berg At Florida: Athletic Trainer: Kelly Fleming Amelia Hundley – Hund-lee Florida reached the NCAA Super Six team final in each of Student Athletic Trainer: Kim Dang Grace McLaughlin – Mick lawf-luhn Rowland’s first two seasons with the Gators, taking fourth in Alex McMurtry – Mick Murr-Tree 2016 and third in 2017. Rowland was named the 2016 Rachel Slocum – sloh-kuh m Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year after the Gators won that season’s team title. Jenny Rowland – ROE-lund Vanasia Bradley - vuh-NAY-suh Adrian Burde - bur-DAY Gators won NCAA individual event titles in each of the last two seasons. Bridget Sloan won the 2016 NCAA all-around and Five with 21 honors in NCAA competition shared that season’s uneven bars and balance beam titles. Returning All-Americans: Alex McMurtry is the reigning NCAA all-around champion and Kennedy Baker 2017 – floor^ shared that season’s uneven bars crown. The Honda Award for 2016 – vault*, floor*, all-around^, bars^ gymnastics went to Sloan (2016) and McMurtry (2017), 2015 - floor * distinguishing them as the nation’s top collegiate gymnast. McMurtry was part of a rare double in 2017, claiming both the Alicia Boren 2017 – all-around^, vault^ SEC Gymnast and the SEC Scholar-Athlete awards. 2016 –beam* In National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Amelia Hundley 2017 all-around^ Coaches/Women (NACGC) All-America regular-season awards, seven Gators picked up 24 honors since 2016.