3 NCAA Championships ● 10 SEC Championships ● 8 with 19 NCAA Individual Titles MEET INFORMATION MEET 2 BATON ROUGE, LA. Date: Friday, Jan. 18 / 9 p.m. ET No. 3 Florida Gators No. 5 LSU Tigers Site: Pete Maravich Assembly Center (13,200) Head Coach: Jenny Rowland Head Coach: D-D Breaux Television: SEC Network Career (4th season): 43-9 Career (42nd season): 774-424-8 Video: WatchESPN At UF: same At LSU: same Live Stats: FloridaGators.com Tickets: Range in price from $12-$6. Contact LSU 2019: 1-0 / 1-0 SEC 2019: 1-1 / 0-1 SEC Ticket Office at (225) 578-2184 for more 2018 NCAA Finish: 3rd 2018 NCAA Finish: 4th information Series Record UF leads 70-40 (last meeting: UF was third (all-time): in 2018 NCAA Super Six (197.85) and What’s Happening? LSU was fourth (197.8375) Florida continues action versus Southeastern Conference “Tigers” when the Gators travel to No. 5 LSU. This is the 21st consecutive meeting both teams bring top-10 rankings. Meetings between these two teams are traditionally close. Of the GATOR SOCIAL last 20 meetings, less than a half a point was the deciding margin 17 times. Florida Gators Gymnastics The Florida-LSU dual ends the first-ever SEC Network Friday Night Heights triple-header. Olympic medalists Bart Conner Florida Gators and Kathy Johnson Clarke call the action Friday beginning at 9 p.m. @GatorsGym @FloridaGators Florida used its highest opening total (and the nation’s second-highest 2019 opening score) to take a 197.30-196.45 win over No. 11 Missouri. The crowd of 8,664 is Florida’s second-largest opening crowd. A Gator collected at least a share of @JennyRowlandUF every event title, including senior All-American Alicia Boren matching her all-time Gator season-opening all-around total gatorsgym (39.575) for the second consecutive year to win the 12th title of her career. She also shared three event titles. Freshman floridagators Nya Reed and Boren tied for the floor title (9.925). Boren and junior All-American Rachel Gowey each turned in the high beam mark of 9.90. Boren and Missouri's Hannah McCrary shared the vault win (9.875). The high score of the evening gave freshman Trinity Thomas the uneven bars win at 9.95. Three others from Florida’s top-ranked freshman class also competed Friday. Leah Clapper, Sydney Johnson-Scharpf and Savannah Schoenherr each turned in some solid routines in their collegiate debuts. Florida Communications Contact: Mary Howard After their season opening performances, a pair of Gators claimed SEC weekly awards. Boren claimed her third SEC Phone: 352-375-4683 x6100 Gymnast of the Week award (and first since 2017) and Thomas is the co-SEC Freshman of the Week. Email: [email protected] Two-time defending SEC champion LSU is coming off its first regular-season league loss since Feb. 13, 2016 (at Georgia 197.524-196.80) as the Tigers lost 197.275-196.70 to open SEC action last Friday at Auburn. It’s been nearly six years since the Pete Maravich Assembly Center saw a Tiger loss (March 8, 2013: 197.725-197.50 loss to No. 5 Alabama). LSU DID YOU KNOW opened the season with a 196.775-195.65 win over California in front of a PMAC crowd of 10,788. LSU’s 2018 attendance average of 12,009 stood third among all 2017-18 NCAA women’s sports. Two on the LSU roster claimed 2017 A tenth of a point or less decided 14 of the 110 all-time NCAA individual event titles – Kennedi Edney (vault) and Sarah Finnegan (bars). meetings between Florida and LSU. Florida Head Coach Jenny Rowland is in her fourth season with the Gators in 2019. In her first three seasons, the Gators won the 2016 Southeastern Conference title and reached the NCAA Super Six team final each year, finishing This includes the last three NCAA Super Six meetings: fourth (2016) and third (2017 & 2018). Nine Gators collected 36 All-America honors in NCAA competition in the last three years, including winning six NCAA event titles (Bridget Sloan: 2016 all-around, uneven bars, balance beam; Alex Year LSU Florida Margin McMurtry: 2017 all-around, uneven bars; 2018 vault). 2018 197.8375 197.850 0.0125 2017 197.7375 197.700 -0.0375 The Gators were third in the final NCAA Super Six team championship as the smallest margin (0.2375) in the 26-year history of the format decided the top four teams. Starting this season, eight teams advance to the NCAA Championships 2016 197.4500 197.350 -0.1000 in Ft. Worth, Texas, with four advancing to the team final. Florida returns four with 11 All-America honors earned at the NCAA Championships – Alyssa Baumann, Alicia Boren, Rachel Gowey and Amelia Hundley. Among the teams in the 2018 NCAA Super Six team final, two return 20 routines (UCLA and Utah), two return 19 (LSU and Oklahoma), Florida returns 18 and Nebraska brings back 15 competitive routines. Bolstering Florida’s 2019 lineup options are six freshmen – the most for the Gators since the 2005 season (also six freshmen on 2005 and 2004 rosters). Two bring U.S. National Team credentials, including Trinity Thomas - the only 2019 collegiate who is a member of the current U.S. Senior National Team. In September, Thomas became the fourth gymnast on a collegiate roster (and first since 2011) to earn an international medal when U.S. took team gold at 2018 Senior Pan American Championships in Lima, Peru. Leah Clapper and Sydney Johnson-Sharpf also have competed at U.S. Championship events. Johnson-Sharpf, a member of the 2015-16 U.S. Senior National Team, represented the U.S. at two international assignments. Three newcomers - Nya Reed, Savannah Schoenherr and Halley Taylor – all advanced to Junior Olympic Level 10 Nationals. In their final J.O. competition in 2018, Schoenherr won bars (also all- around runner-up), Reed was fourth in vault and floor and Taylor was eighth in the all-around. Clapper also competed at the 2018 J.O.s, taking ninth in the Senior D all-around. This class ranks No. 1 on the 2019 CollegeGymFans.com Top Recruiting Classes list. In the last 10 years, Florida’s recruiting classes ranked No. 1 seven times and No. 2 twice. MEET COACH ROWLAND 2019 GATOR GYMNASTICS ROSTER Jenny Rowland, one of the nation’s rising coaching talents, is in her fourth season as NAME EVTS HT CL HOMETOWN (CLUB) University of Florida’s head gymnastics Sierra Alexander V, FX 5-7 JR Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (West Broward coach. Rowland is the seventh head coach Gymnastics Academy) for the Gator program, which is in its 47th Alyssa Baumann AA 5-1 SO Dallas, Texas (WOGA) Alicia Boren AA 4-11 SR Franklin Lakes, N.J. (North Stars season in 2019. Gymnastics Academy) Maegan Chant AA 5-3 JR Waterdown, Ontario (World Class She shared the 2016 Southeastern Conference Coach of the Gymnastics) Year honor with Arkansas’ Mark Cook. She joins volleyball’s Amanda Cheney V, BB 5-5 SR Orlando, Fla. (Orlando Metro) Leah Clapper AA 4-11 FR Ann Arbor, Mich. (Gym America) Mary Wise (1991) as a Gator coach who claimed SEC Coach of Jazmyn Foberg AA 5-2 SO Bayville, N.J. (MG Elite) the Year honors in their first season at UF. Rachel Gowey AA 5-1 JR Urbandale, Iowa (Chow’s Gymnastics) Rowland’s experiences from the sport’s highest level are the Amelia Hundley AA 5-5 JR Hamilton, Ohio (Cincinnati Gymnastics) Sydney Johnson-Scharpf V, BB, 4-11 FR Clermont, Fla. (Brandy Johnson's Global same as many current Gators. She is a former U.S. National FX Gymnastics) Team member, a collegiate All-American and was named a Nya Reed AA 5-3 FR Landover, Md. (Capital Gymnastics NTC) 2015 National Collegiate Assistant of the Year. Savannah Schoenherr AA 5-3 FR Columbus, Ga. (Oconee Gymnastics Center) Rowland is a Category 3 International Brevet level judge. She Megan Skaggs AA 5-3 SO Marietta, Ga. (Gymnastics Academy of served on the judging panel for the 2008, 2012 and 2016 U.S. Atlanta) Olympic Trials. Halley Taylor AA 5-2 FR Tampa, Fla. (LaFleur’s Gymnastics Tampa) Trinity Thomas AA 5-3 FR York, Pa. (Prestige Gymnastics) Rowland’s Coaching Career: At Florida: Staff: Pronunciation Guide: Florida reached the NCAA Super Six team final in each of Head Coach: Jenny Rowland Sierra Alexander – see-er-uh Assistant Coaches: Adrian Burde & Owen Field Alyssa Baumann – Baugh-man Rowland’s first three seasons with the Gators, taking fourth in Volunteer Coach: Jeremy Miranda Alicia Boren – uh-LEE-sh uh Bore-en 2016 and third in 2017 & 2018. Rowland was named the 2016 Student Coach: Vanasia Bradley Amanda Cheney – Chain-ee Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year after the Gators Assistant to the Head Coach: Brittany Arlington Jazmyn Foberg – FOE-berg won that season’s team title. Managers: Tory Cohen & Rachel Slocum Amelia Hundley – Hund-lee Athletic Trainer: Janet Taylor Sydney Johnson-Scharpf - shärpf Gators won NCAA individual event titles in each of the last Nya Reed – nī-uh three seasons. Bridget Sloan won the 2016 NCAA all-around Savannah Schoenherr – Shane-hair Halley Taylor – hAE-lee (rhymes with valley) and shared that season’s uneven bars and balance beam titles. Alex McMurtry won the 2017 NCAA all-around champion and Jenny Rowland – ROE-lund shared that season’s uneven bars crown. She finished her Vanasia Bradley - vuh-NAY-suh career by claiming a share of the 2018 vault title.