With the start of the Summer B semester and the end of the 2014-2015 collegiate athletic season, it’s time for another installment of the annual Alligator Awards. This week, Alligator editor-in-chief Jordan McPherson and alligatorSports assistant editor Luis Torres debate which of UF’s national championship winning teams — the softball team or the gymnastics team — deserves the title of "Best Team."
Jordan: Ah, the good ole championship debate. This is one for the ages.
But when you look at the big picture, Florida’s gymnastics team is clearly the best out of UF’s two title winners.
Up and down all four event lineups, there was not a flaw to be found.
It wasn’t just the Kytra Hunters and Bridget Sloans who carried the team — heck, Sloan was out for most of the year with a severely sprained ankle.
Rather, this year’s gymnastics team was the epitome of a team.
In 14 meets this year, the Gators only used the same meet lineup twice: The NCAA Regional and the Super Six which resulted in the team’s third national title in as many years.
Coach Rhonda Faehn relied on every gymnast — from bars specialist Bianca Dancose-Giambattisto to freshman phenoms Kennedy Baker and Alex McMurtry and everyone in between — to perform to the best of her ability.
Every gymnast needed to be on her game, every move needed to be executed perfectly and every performance needed to be spot on.
For the third straight year, Florida did just that.
Luis: Yes Jordan, the UF gymnastics team had a great season and won its third consecutive national title, but it doesn’t come close to what the softball team did this year.
The Gators softball team won its second-straight national title behind the postseason dominance of Lauren Haeger. Her numbers in the Women’s College World Series were flat out ridiculous as she went 4-1 with a 1.17 ERA while striking out 20 in five starts.
But while there are some people who say she’s the only reason that the team won this year’s title, the rest of the team played a huge part just like the entire gymnastics roster. Kelsey Stewart was the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year after hitting a ridiculous .536 in conference play and having 45 hits in just 23 conference games. The team had its own freshmen who stepped up in a big way during the beginning of the season and in the postseason with Aleshia Ocasio and Nicole DeWitt.
In a pressure-filled game, Ocasio was brilliant in Game 1 of the WCWS series against the Michigan Wolverines.
The freshman tossed six innings while allowing just two runs en route to the Gators winning 3-2 and having a 1-0 advantage in the WCWS finale. Coach Tim Walton made some critical moves during the season, and for the second straight year Florida came out on top.
Jordan: The softball team’s run this year was nothing short of spectacular. There’s no way to deny that. But let’s be honest.
Lauren Haeger carried that team.
You can argue Kelsey Stewart’s accomplishments at the plate were a factor as well, but it was Haeger’s team. Without her, the softball team wouldn’t have accomplished half of what it did this year.
If Haeger had the slightest of struggles, who would have replaced her? Ocasio, the freshman whose highs were equalled by a share of lows? Delanie Gourley, the sophomore who was moved to a relief pitcher role due to her erraticness as a starter? Simply put, Haeger’s production made the team.
UF gymnastics, on the other hand, was able to utilize its depth. When Sloan — arguably Florida’s all-around leader — sprained her ankle in the season opener, the Gators didn’t falter. Multiple gymnasts who fly under the radar to the average fan — Rachel Spicer, Claire Boyce, Ericha Fassbender, the list keeps going — took on extra routines to make up for Sloan’s absence.
And where was the drop off? Oh yeah, there wasn’t one.
In UF’s five meets without Sloan, the Gators had an average score of 197.405. In the nine where Sloan performed at least one rotation, UF’s average score was 197.69. Not too much of a difference. The same probably wouldn’t have been said for the softball team if Haeger wasn’t in the circle.
Luis: Sure, Haeger was an integral part of the team and was Florida’s best player, but don’t say that to Walton.
He said more than once during the year that Stewart was the engine of the team that made them chug. I agree with you that it would’ve been hard for the team to replace Haeger had she struggled or went down with an injury, but I just can’t find myself saying that arguably the best softball coach in the country — Walton — wouldn’t have made the necessary adjustments to give his team the best chance to make it as far as they did.
As for Gourley, she was great at the beginning of the season before the dreaded sophomore slump got to her. But Walton still had enough confidence in her to throw her out in the opening game of the WCWS series and she got the save.
And as for the gymnastics team, they lost two meets without Sloan at 100 percent. She came back for the LSU meet, but she only competed on bars and UF lost 197.950-197.425.
You can’t tell me that she wasn’t a huge difference during the time she was missing, because if she's competing in at least three events during those two meets, there’s no way Florida would’ve lost. Also, the softball team played in 67 games this year when compared to the gymnastics team competing in just 17 meets.
Softball is a grind and I’m not saying gymnastics isn’t, but the amount of games that Florida had to play in the span of a little over four months, really just shows how much they accomplished this season.
Jordan: The amount of games/meets each team plays is irrelevant.
Sure, the softball team played four times as many games as the gymnastics team had meets, but that’s because of the physically demanding nature that comes with gymnastics.
You can’t just go out there and have the gymnasts compete in 20-plus meets in a month like softball does at the beginning of each season. And all three of UF’s losses (‘Bama, LSU, Oklahoma) were against teams that made the NCAA Championship. When they got there and competed in Fort Worth, Texas, they finished looking up at the Gators.
Luis: They finished looking up at those teams because of how great Sloan was when she was fully healthy. And I agree with you that gymnasts can’t go out there and compete two or three times a week because of how demanding the sport is to the body, but I don’t think most people realize how physically and mentally exhausting softball can really be.
With that said and done, I think the Gators’ softball team is the more impressive of the two.
Who do you think won the debate? Cast your vote online at alligator.org/sports.
The Florida gymnastics team celebrates wining the NCAA National Championship on Saturday, April 18, 2015 in Fort Worth, Texas.
