Heading into No. 4 Florida’s meet against No. 16 Auburn, UF coach Rhonda Faehn emphasized how she wanted her team to score well on the road and drop the 195.475 it scored against N.C. State.
Friday night in Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum, Florida (6-2, 5-1 Southeastern Conference) did just that, as it beat Auburn (2-5, 2-4 SEC), 196.800 – 195.700.
The score was the Gators’ best output on the road, and their second-best performance of the season, second only to last week’s score against rival Georgia.
As close as the teams’ last four meetings in Auburn have been, this meet was all Florida from the start.
In the first rotation, Maranda Smith, Elizabeth Mahlich and Amanda Castillo registered 9.875s en route to the team’s best bar score of the season. The three gymnasts shared the event title on bars, and helped Florida establish a .525 point advantage early on.
But that was as close as the score would get Friday night.
Florida came away with team victories in each event, and swept the individual honors for the meet, as well, including beam and vault titles for Courtney Gladys.
Freshman Ashanée Dickerson performed well in the all-around again, earning her fifth all-around title of the season, and second in as many weeks.
The team’s performance also allowed it to finish off its SEC regular season schedule on a high note before closing out the season with two out-of-conference competitions.
