3 NCAA Championships ● 10 SEC Championships ● 8 with 19 NCAA Individual Titles MEET INFORMATION MEET 2 Gainesville, Fla.. Date: Friday, Jan. 12 / 6:45 p.m. ET No. 7 Florida Gators No. 1 LSU Tigers Site: Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. Head Coach: Jenny Rowland Head Coach: D-D Breaux O’Connell Center (9,166) Career (3rd season): 30-5 Career (41st season): 741-418-8 Television: SEC Network At UF: same At LSU: same Video: WatchESPN Live Stats: FloridaGators.com 2018: 1-0 / 0-0 SEC 2018: 1-0 / 1-0 SEC Tickets: Reserved - $8; General admission - $5. 2017 NCAA Finish: 3rd 2017 NCAA Finish: 2nd Children 12 & under and UF Students with Gator1 admitted free. Contact UF Ticket What’s Happening? Office at 352-375-4683 for more A trio of debuts await the No. 7 Gators this Friday. Florida opens home and Southeastern Conference action information when No. 1 Louisiana State comes to the Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell. It is also the first of five Series Record UF leads 69-38 (last meeting: LSU was live Friday Night Heights appearances on the SEC Network for the Gators. Olympic medalists Bart Conner and (all-time): second in 2017 NCAA Super Six Kathy Johnson Clarke call Friday’s action with Gator alumna Laura Rutledge adding sideline reports. (197.7373) and UF was third (197.70) Promotions: The first 1,000 fans receive a pair of Friday’s meet features the No. 2 (LSU) and No. 3 (UF) teams in 2017 NCAA Super Six team final competition. “Perfect 10.0” foam hands and the first Although Florida leads the all-time series 69-38, LSU has won each of the last five meetings, dating back to the 1,000 students receive a Gators 2016 NCAA Super Six when LSU took second and UF was fourth. A half of a point or less decided 40 of the 107 Gymnastics t shirt! all-time meetings (37 percent), including each of the last three meetings (2017 Southeastern Conference 97. Championships / 0.15; 2017 NCAA Semifinal / 0.4625; 2017 NCAA Super Six / 0.0375), all four of the 2016 GATOR SOCIAL meetings and at the 2015 SEC Championships (translation: eight of last 10 meetings). The last home loss for UF? It came versus LSU on Feb. 26, 2016 by the sport’s narrowest of margins: 197.90-197.875. Florida Gators Gymnastics Florida Gators Florida opened the 2018 season Jan. 5 with 195.90-194.425 road win at West Virginia. The Gators swept the @GatorsGym event titles, including junior All-American Alicia Boren winning all-around with the top season opening total @FloridaGators (39.575) in the program’s 46-season history. Boren also won floor (9.925) and shared the balance beam with at 9.90 with teammates Alyssa Baumann and Rachel Gowey. Senior All-American Alex McMurtry opened her @JennyRowlandUF season winning the meet’s first two titles – vault (9.9) and bars 9.925) to push her career total of event wins to 50. gatorsgym She is the 10th in the 46-year history to claim 50 or more career event titles. floridagators Florida’s Jazmyn Foberg was a mid-meet addition to the all-around competition, as she replaced senior All- American Kennedy Baker in the beam lineup when Baker was held out due to leg cramps early in the competition. Foberg took runner-up at 39.125 – the fifth highest total for a Gator freshman all-arounder in a Florida Communications Contact: season’s opener. That performance earned Foberg the SEC Freshman of the Week honor. Mary Howard 352-375-4683 x6100 The Gators were third in 2017 NCAA Super Six competition, won the NCAA Gainesville Regional and was runner- Phone: up to LSU in both Southeastern Conference regular-season and championship action. McMurtry won the NCAA Email: [email protected] all-around with a NCAA semifinal record of 39.8125 and was among a six-way tie for the uneven bars title. McMurtry received several awards, including the Honda Award (awarded to top collegiate gymnast), SEC Gymnast and SEC Gymnastics Scholar-Athlete of Year. She is the first Gator to receive the NCAA Elite 90 award, DID YOU KNOW given to the student-athlete with the highest grade point average at each of the 90 NCAA Championship sites. Florida’s Top 10 Home Opening Scores LSU opened 2018 home and SEC action last Friday with a 197.15-195.35 win over then No. 19 Arkansas in front Date UF Score Meet Site Meet # of a Pete Maravich Assembly Center crowd of 10,755. The Tigers return six All-Americans and added the nation’s 1/24/14 198.05 Georgia H 3 No. 5 recruiting class. Junior Sarah Finnegan won the LSU-Arkansas all-around with the nation’s top total of 1/15/16 197.675 UCLA H 2 39.65. That performance also brought her the SEC Gymnast of the Week honor. The Tigers swept the meet titles, 1/13/17 197.600 Kentucky H 2 with each event won with a mark of 9.90 or better. 1/16/15 197.20 Auburn H 2 Of the 12 teams at the 2017 NCAA Championships final site, only Florida returns all 24 routines competed. 1/11/08 197.125 Illinois-Chicago H 1 Bolstering Florida’s lineup options in 2018 is the addition of four freshmen. Three bring experience from the U.S. 1/7/11 196.925 Nebraska H 1 national team program. This trio brings the number of gymnasts with all-around potential on 2018 Gator roster to 1/12/07 196.85 Oregon State H 2 eight. Alyssa Baumann was part of the U.S.’s gold-medal team at the 2014 World Championships. She qualified for the 2016 Olympic Trials, but an elbow injury while preparing for the Trials led Baumann to defer enrolling at 1/4/13 196.575 Ball State H 1 UF until fall 2017 as she recovered. Megan Skaggs joined current Gator sophomores Rachel Gowey and 1/15/10 196.575 Arkansas H 2 Hundley on the 2015 Pan America Games gold-medal team. Jazmyn Foberg graduated high school in three 1/9/09 196.50 Oklahoma H 1 years, allowing her enroll at UF in fall of 2017. Foberg is a two-time member of the U.S. Junior National Team, 1/13/12 196.175 Illinois-Chicago H 2 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, is in 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.