UF junior Leanne Wong kept the Gators afloat as they struggled in parts of their meet against Auburn. Wong clinched the leaderboard spot on both the uneven parallel bars and the floor exercise. On the bars, she earned the highest score of a 9.950 just ahead of two other Florida gymnasts.
However, on the floor exercise Wong persevered through her teammates' struggling performances and claimed the top slot with a 9.950. Three of the six Gator gymnasts fell short with scores above a 9.8. Wong’s performance allowed Florida to remain in the lead and instill confidence within her team to stand out with an all-around 39.625 score.
The No. 7 Florida Gators (4-0, 1-0 SEC) defeated the No. 12 Auburn Tigers (1-4, 0-2 SEC) 197.325 Friday evening on the road in Auburn, Alabama, at Neville Arena for their first meet of Southeastern Conference action.
Freshman Gabby Disidore opened up for the Gators on uneven parallel bars and earned a 9.875 score upon her strategic performance. Junior Sloane Blakely kept the momentum up as she ran through her routine to earn a 9.825.
UF freshman standout Anya Pilgrim led the uneven parallel bars score amongst all five of the Gators wwith a 9.900, just shy of a perfect 10. Florida continued to shine in the apparatus with another seamless performance from Wong.
Wong topped the apparatus and earned first place on the leaderboard with a 9.950 when she struck her landing. The Gators took the lead with an overall 49.400 score to close out the first rotation.
Junior Bri Edwards breezed through her run with a graceful execution to clinch a 9.875 and tie for second place on vault with Auburn graduate student Cassie Stephens. Freshman Skylar Draser completed the second rotation and came in just short of matching Edwards with a 9.800.
Freshman Danie Ferris struggled as her landing struck uneasily, recording a 9.725. However, Wong kept the momentum fired up with her graceful vault performance, recording a 9.850.
Pilgrim once again notched a top spot in the apparatus coming in head-to-head with Edwards with scores lined up at 9.875. Florida snatched another rotation to contribute to their overall 98.635 lead over the Tigers.
Sophomore Lori Burbach glistened in her floor exercise and earned a season-best 9.900.. Senior Ellie Lazzari fell short of her expected performance in the third rotation, struggling to gracefully execute her floor exercise causing her to record a 9.850.
Florida continued to fall behind on the floor exercise as Blakely scored a 9.775, the lowest of the four Gators performances of the meet. Junior Morgan Hurd brushed off the slum of low performances and competed with a seamless floor routine to earn her a 9.875.
Wong dazzled in her floor routine where she carried through with no costly mistakes and earned the highest score amongst the six Gator gymnasts with a 9.950. Wong and Brubach both carried the apparatus with well-executed performances, both scoring above a 9.9.
Draser opened the Gators’ final apparatus on the balance beam to place third alongside Auburn senior Olivia Hollingsworth with recorded scores of 9.850. Blakley then secured the third slot on the beam with a 9.975. Her score pushed both Draser and Hollingsworth down to fourth place.
With a final standout performance from Wong, Florida kept their lead to finish their first SEC meet of the season with a 197.325 overall score.
UF has its next meet at home Jan. 26 against Alabama at 6:45 p.m. The meet will be streamed on ESPN+.
Contact Alyssa Britton-Harr at abritton-harr@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @abrittonharr.
Alyssa Britton-Harr is a second-year journalism major and a sports reporter for The Alligator. In her free time, she enjoys cheering on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and spending time with her friends.
