This Week's Event: Did You Know… What's Happening?
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3 NCAA Championships ● 10 SEC Championships ● 7 with 17 NCAA Individual Titles This Week’s Event: What’s Happening? No. 3 Florida versus No. 14 Kentucky A trio of 2017 firsts are set for the Gators this Friday. No. 3 Florida makes its first appearance in Date & Time: Jan. 13, 2017 – 6:45 p.m. ET the newly renovated Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center for the Gators’ home and Site: Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center (9,166) Southeastern Conference opener versus No. 14 Kentucky. Television: none Series Record (all-time): 80-1. Last meeting, Florida won the This is the 14th time since the Southeastern Conference began sponsoring gymnastics for the 1981 2016 Southeastern Conference Championships (197.775) and season that the Gators have opened home action versus a league opponent. Kentucky has been a part Kentucky was seventh (196.25) Gator’ home openers three times (1988, 2003, 2017). Video Stream: Live on SEC Network beginning at 6:45 p.m. Florida used the second-highest season opening total in the program’s 45-year history, 197.10, to open Tickets: Reserved - $8; General admission - $5. Children 12 & 2017 with a win Sunday afternoon at North Carolina State. The Wolfpack turned in a 194.925. The under and UF Students with Gator1 admitted free. Contact UF Gators took each apparatus title with the three Gators earning 2016 All-America honors claiming the Ticket Office at 352-375-4683 for more information. meet titles. Alicia Boren’s 9.95 on vault was the day's high score on any event and she also used a Meet Promotions: Giveaway – 7,000 Orange Glow Bracelets; 9.925 to win balance beam. The 9.95 is the nation’s high on vault through the first week of competition. Wear Orange – Wear your best orange Gator gear as the Gators Kennedy Baker and Alex McMurtry won floor exercise (9.925) and uneven bars (9.90), respectively. take on Kentucky! Post Meet Autographs – Fans can get the 2017 Gators Gymnastics poster signed by the team following the Baker led a Gator sweep of the all-around. Baker won at 39.50 and Boren was close behind at 39.475. meet!; Trophy Photo Booth – Take your photo with the 2016 SEC Those tallies rank among the program's best for a season opener. Baker equaled two-time NCAA all- Championship Trophy and post using #GoGators; Student around champion Bridget Sloan's total set last season as the top opening all-around road score, while Tailgate – At Gate 3, free Mac & Cheese bar (while supplies last), Boren's 39.475 is third on that list. Amelia Hundley's mark is the highest for a freshman in a road orange glow body paint station, cornhole, football toss, and other season opener. All three all-around totals stand among the nation’s top 12 and UF is the only school games! with three among that top dozen. Florida Gators Gymnastics Kentucky opened the season with a 195.075-192.050 win at Eastern Michigan last Friday. Freshman Mollie Korth opened her collegiate career by taking the all-around win (39.075). She also shared the Florida Gators uneven bars win as the Wildcats took each apparatus title. The Wildcats took seventh in 2016 SEC Championship action and finished fourth in the NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional. Kentucky is No. 14 on the @GatorsGym latest Road to National rankings, the highest position the Wildcats bring into a meeting with the Gators since holding the No. 12 spot for the Jan. 22, 2010 dual meet in Lexington, Ky. @FloridaGators @JennyRowlandUF 2017 is season No. 2 for Florida head coach Jenny Rowland. In her first season with the Gators, Rowland picked up the Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year honor after Florida won the program’s 10th SEC title. She is one of two Gator coaches all-time to win a SEC team title and claim the league’s coach of the year honor in their first season (UF volleyball coach Mary Wise is the other). Florida Communications Contact: The 2016 Gators took fourth in 2016 NCAA Super Six competition and won the Southeastern Mary Howard Conference and NCAA Minneapolis Regional team titles. Then senior Bridget Sloan won three NCAA titles in 2016 NCAA Championship competition. She won her second NCAA all-around title and also Office: 352-375-4683 x6100 shared the wins for uneven bars and balance beam. She finished her career with a total of six NCAA Email: [email protected] event titles, which is tops in Florida history and third in the 35-year history of the NCAA Championships. She was one of three Gators during the course of the 2016 season to match school Did You Know… event records of 10.0 – Kennedy Baker (floor), Alex McMurtry (uneven bars) and Sloan (beam, floor). Florida’s Top 10 Home Opening Scores The Gators return four gymnasts in 2017 (Kennedy Baker, Alicia Boren, Claire Boyce, Alex Date UF Score Meet Site Meet # McMurtry) who own a total of 12 All-America honors. The 2017 Gators return 13 of 24 routines 1/24/14 198.05 Georgia H 3 competed in the 2016 NCAA Championships. 1/15/16 197.675 UCLA H 2 The Gators’ 13-member roster includes four freshmen and one newcomer. In the first meet of the 1/16/15 197.20 Auburn H 2 season at NC State, these freshmen turned in nine routines. Three of the freshmen took part in their 1/11/08 197.125 Illinois-Chicago H 1 nation’s Olympic Trials last summer. Amelia Hundley and Rachel Gowey both took part in the 2016 1/7/11 196.925 Nebraska H 1 U.S. Olympic Trials, finishing ninth and 11th, respectively. The U.S. Senior National Team members also teamed up to help the U.S. win the 2015 Pan America Games team title. Maegan Chant 1/12/07 196.85 Oregon State H 2 competed in the 2016 Canadian Olympic National Selection camp, taking ninth after day 2 competition. 1/4/13 196.575 Ball State H 1 She represented Canada in 2013 and 2014 World Championships’ competition and at the 2014 Pan 1/15/10 196.575 Arkansas H 2 Am Games. Freshman Sierra Alexander was runner-up in the 2016 and 2015 Florida Level 10 vault 1/9/09 196.50 Oklahoma H 1 competition. This class ranks No. 2 on the 2017 CollegeGymFans.com Top Recruiting Classes list. In the last eight years, Florida’s recruiting classes have ranked No. 1 five times and No. 2 twice. 1/13/12 196.175 Illinois-Chicago H 2 Florida also added junior Rachel Slocum as she transferred to join UF for the 2017 season. She earned All-Mid-American Conference honors in 2016 and helped Eastern Michigan win the 2016 MAC team title. Slocum advanced the 2016 NCAA Championships’ competition after sharing the NCAA Ann Arbor Regional floor exercise title. ABOUT THE GATORS: 2016 Notables… Meet Coach Rowland Location: Gainesville, Fla. Claimed program’s 10th Southeastern Jenny Rowland, one of the nation’s rising coaching President: Dr. W. Kent Fuchs Conference team title. The 0.025 winning talents, is in her second season as University of Florida’s head gymnastics coach. Rowland is the Athletics Director: Scott Stricklin margin over Alabama (197.775 -1975.75) equals the smallest in the 36-year history of the seventh head coach for the Gator program, which is Senior Women’s Administrator: SEC Championships. in its 45th season in 2017. Lynda Tealer Fourth at NCAA Championships (197.35). The She shared the 2016 Southeastern Conference Conference: Southeastern 0.325 margin between first and fourth is the Coach of the Year honor with Arkansas’ Mark Cook. Enrollment: 49,827 slenderest in the 35-year history of the NCAA Among the current Gator staff, she joins football’s Jim McElwain (2015) and volleyball’s Mary Wise Nickname: Gators Championships. NCAA Minneapolis Region champion (1991) as those who claimed SEC Coach of the Year Colors: Orange & Blue (196.725). honors in their first season at UF. Five gymnasts collected 14 All-America honors Rowland brings experiences from the sport’s highest UF GYMNASTICS QUICK FACTS: in NCAA Championships’ competition. level to Florida. She is a former U.S. National Team 2017 Record: 1-0, 0-0 SEC Same five earned a national high of 14 All- member, a collegiate All-American and was named a America honors in National Association of 2015 National Collegiate Assistant of the Year. 2016 Record: 15-2, 5-2 SEC Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches (NACGC) 2016 SEC/NCAA Finish: 1st (197.775); 4th (197.35) Rowland is a Category 3 International Brevet level regular-season awards. judge. She served on the judging panel for the 2008, For the sixth straight year, a Gator claimed a 2012 and 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials. COACHING STAFF: NCAA individual title. Bridget Sloan won the all- Rowland’s Coaching Career: Head Coach: Jenny Rowland around title and shared the NCAA bars and At Florida: Career & School Record/Years: second season beam titles. Her six NCAA individual titles set In first season at Florida, saw the Gators rank among Gator career record. the top four teams throughout the 2016 season. Assistant Coaches: Adrian Burde, Owen Field Honda Award for gymnastics signifying the Florida won the program’s 10th Southeastern Volunteer Coach: Jeremy Miranda nation’s top collegiate student-athlete in the Conference team title and Rowland was named SEC sport went to Bridget Sloan for second time Co-Coach of the Year.