Ashanee Dickerson, Kytra Hunter, Alaina Johnson, Marissa King and Bridget Sloan are all all-around competitors for the Gators.
But when No. 1 Florida hosted No. 23 Kentucky on Friday night, it was the first time UF didn’t have an all-around competitor since Feb. 18, 2011.
“We were resting a lot of people,” Dickerson said. “We just want to rest so that we can be healthy and ready for the end of the season.”
Despite the lineup change, the Gators (7-1, 6-1 Southeastern Conference) defeated the Wildcats (5-4-1, 3-3-1 SEC) 196.975-196.075 thanks to six new personal bests from Sloan, Hunter, Mackenzie Caquatto, Jamie Shisler and Kiersten Wang.
Caquatto got things started for Florida on vault. The junior earned a 9.925, which beat her previous best of 9.85. Sloan followed Caquatto’s performance with a career-high 9.95 on vault to outdo her previous 9.925. But Sloan wasn’t done setting records yet.
In the second rotation, the freshman used a near perfect 9.975 on the uneven bars to earn her a new personal-best and the event title. Hunter also set a personal best on bars with a score of 9.95.
But after Sloan’s bar routine, things got rough for Florida.
Although they had one of their strongest starts of the season featuring four personal bests, the Gators had their lowest beam performance of the season.
It started with a fall from Sloan. Hunter followed Sloan’s performance with an uncharacteristically low 9.65 due to three balance checks during her routine. Then Caquatto also fell, bringing Florida to a 48.525 on beam.
“On beam it was kind of a ripple effect,” Sloan said. “I fell, then Kytra kind of had a rough beam and then [Caquatto] fell. I’m standing there thinking to myself, ‘Well good job, Bridget. Way to go. You started this falling trend.’”
Prior to Friday night, the Gators lowest beam score was a 48.775 during UF’s 196.875-196.575 loss to LSU on Jan. 11.
But the Gators didn’t back down.
Shisler opened up the final rotation with a career-best 9.825 on floor. Florida followed the sophmore’s lead by posting strong scores to close out the match, including a personal best 9.875 from Wang.
“That was huge for [Shisler] stepping in,” coach Rhonda Faehn said. “That’s probably one of the best (routines) I’ve ever seen her do.”
Sloan added: “Floor tonight was an incredible achievement for us to come back from beam. We really brought it together and we were able to [win], so it’s just reassuring that we can do it. … We didn’t really have it on beam, but we had it on vault, we definitely had it on bars and we had it on floor.”
Contact Katie Agostin at kagostin@alligator.org.
Freshman Bridget Sloan performs her bar routine during Florida's 198.10-196.85 win against Alabama on Feb. 8 in the O'Connell Center. Sloan won the all-around title at the SEC Championship meet on Saturday.
