With one event to go, the Florida Gators’ Southeastern Conference Championship hopes were slipping.
The Alabama Crimson Tide, surging hard, notched a meet-high event score of 49.55 on their final uneven bars rotation.
Florida was facing the possibility of yet another slim loss in the final moments of a match.
This time, though, UF fired back.
Following senior Bridgette Caquatto’s title-clinching 9.875 on the floor, the Gators finally came out on the right end of a nail-biter.
Earlier in the year, No. 2 Florida (9-2, 5-2 SEC) appeared to have an issue closing out meets.
Facing similar opposition, the team would fly out of the gates, carrying an advantage into the meet’s final event only to watch it slip away under duress.
It first became evident on Feb. 5, when a 0.625-point edge dissolved in the fourth and final rotation against the Georgia Bulldogs.
It flared up once more three weeks later en route to a 197.900-197.875 loss to visiting LSU.
For head coach Jenny Rowland, though, the only distinction between these regular-season defeats and Saturday’s victory was the result.
"Our two losses this year were just on the flip-flop side of what happened this past Saturday," she said. "It was a quarter of a tenth, it was a half a tenth, which is the smallest margin possible."
On their end, the Gators stuck to their usual formula.
"I believe that our lead-off girls, the first girl up on each event, really set the tone for the team, for their confidence level," Rowland said.
Saturday’s championship meet saw Florida fly ahead, recording a meet-high-tying vault score of 49.425. The squad sustained its advantage in the thick of competition, finishing second and first in aggregate score on bars and beam, respectively.
But when the troublesome final round came about, they held their ground. The No. 1-seeded Gators’ third-place score of 49.425 was enough to stave off the upset.
For all that happened in the past, Saturday night served as validation.
Throughout it all, the team remained confident, assured in its talent as if it had completed an undefeated regular season.
"Every team has its own story," Rowland said. "Year after year, it’s different, and this is my first storybook as a head coach.
"This past Saturday was definitely a chapter worth reading, and definitely a chapter that I will continue to relive and a moment that I will relive for the rest of my career."
Regional Announced: The Florida Gymnastics team will compete in the Minneapolis Regional on April 2 to open up NCAA competition. The rest of the field includes No. 11 Denver, No. 16 Minnesota, No. 20 Missouri, No. 28 Ohio State and No. 31 BYU. The top-two teams in each of the six regionals advances to the NCAA Championships in Fort Worth, Texas.
Contact Alejandro Lopez at alopez@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @ajlb95.
Bridget Sloan celebrates with coach Jenny Rowland during Florida's 198.050-193.725 win over North Carolina on March 11, 2016, in the O'Connell Center.
