| FLORIDA GATORS |
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| Seniors | ||
| Sierra Alexander |
VT FX |
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| Maegan Chant |
VT UB |
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| Rachel Gowey |
VT UB BB FX |
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| Amelia Hundley |
VT UB BB FX |
|
| Juniors | ||
| Alyssa Baumann |
VT UB BB FX |
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| Megan Skaggs |
VT UB BB FX |
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| Sophomores | ||
| Leah Clapper |
VT UB BB FX |
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| Jazmyn Foberg (redshirt) |
VT UB BB FX |
|
| Sydney Johnson-Scharpf |
UB BB FX |
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| Nya Reed |
VT FX |
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| Savannah Schoenherr |
VT UB FX |
|
| Halley Taylor |
|
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| Trinity Thomas |
VT UB BB FX |
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| Freshmen | ||
| Payton Richards |
VT UB BB FX |
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FINAL SEASON RANKING
2019 – 10th
2018 – 3rd
2017 – 3rd
2016 – 4th
2015 – 1st
2014 – 1st
2013 – 1st
2012 – 2nd
2011 – 7th
2010 – 5th
THE 2019 STORY
There’s no “oh, the positives they can take from this are…” for Florida’s 2019 finish. This is a team that expects to challenge for national championships, if not win them, and should have made it to the final last season after spending the entire year in the 2-4 zone. Elimination at regionals for 10th place—the team’s weakest finish in 17 years—is just a loss and a disappointment.
DEPARTED 2019 ROUTINES
Alicia Boren – VT, UB, BB, FX
Amanda Cheney – VT, BB
Florida has among the fewest routines that need replacing from 2019, but of course Boren’s all-around performance was such a necessary presence from week to week that simply relying on the team’s depth to fill in those gaps won’t be enough. New starring routines need to emerge on each piece.
INCOMING GYMNAST
It’s a hearty class of one. Payton Richards is the lone new gymnast on this roster, though she should contribute to the lineup restocking project by providing at least believeable options on each event, likely making a lineup or three.
2020 PROJECTION
Florida is going to be strong in 2020. That’s not really the question. Last season’s 10th-place finish was not representative of the team’s quality and won’t influence the Gators entering 2020 as a preseason favorite to advance to the national final again. The question is, is 3rd place enough? It’s very easy, very safe to project Florida finishing 3rd or 4th this season, but this is a title-expecting program, and returning gymnasts are going to have to turn it up a notch for Florida to start looking like a #1 team, which we haven’t seen in a while.
VAULT
2019 Event Ranking: 8
| Lineup locks: Trinity Thomas, Savannah Schoenherr, Nya Reed |
| Lineup options: Megan Skaggs, Sierra Alexander, Payton Richards, Alyssa Baumann, Maegan Chant, Jazzy Foberg, Rachel Gowey, Amelia Hundley, Leah Clapper |
Vault proved a surprising problem for Florida in 2019. I say surprising because the team boasted a theoretically excellent collection of four Y1.5s from Boren, Thomas, Schoenherr, and Reed that should have put them among the best vaulting teams in the country, but the landing control never delivered the way it was supposed to, keeping Florida’s vault scores squarely at the pedestrian level most of the time.
The team has lost Boren’s vault and doesn’t necessarily have an obvious replacement of equivalent difficulty (Chant has a Tsuk full that makes occasional appearances, Baumann has worked the 1.5 at times, but it’s nothing sure). Skaggs and Alexander continued to improve their fulls in 2019 to make the final six, and Richards should provide a new, realistic full for the lineup, joining quite a hearty supply of people who can give the team countable Yfulls with a fair degree of control. There’s not a shortage of vaults.
But is there a shortage of 10.0s? Only sort of, because even if Florida does go down in difficulty in 2020, there’s still quite a bit of room for scoring improvement if the landings are better under control this time around. That must be the focus.
BARS
2019 Event Ranking: 3
| Lineup locks: Trinity Thomas, Amelia Hundley, Meagan Skaggs, Rachel Gowey, Savannah Schoenherr |
| Lineup options: Jazzy Foberg, Alyssa Baumann, Payton Richards, Maegan Chant, Leah Clapper, Sydney Johnson-Scharpf |
There’s really not a lot that needs changing for Florida on bars. The lineup loses Boren but returns five gymnasts who were exceptionally successful last season—Thomas, Hundley, Skaggs, and Schoenherr all recorded NQSs of 9.9+, and Gowey is Gowey—and another in Foberg who made the lineup in 2018 for solid scores. No one would object to that group as the final six right there, and it would rank among the best in the country with likely little change in scores from last season. So basically bars preview done?
I do, however, need to mention that Alyssa Baumann has been training bars again and doing a Ray, which is probably just meant to trick us into caring like when she’s supposed to compete a DLO and then never does, but it’s working. Bars is not the absolute deepest event for this roster, but with a few sophomores who could compete yet didn’t make the lineup last season (and Richards also providing a possibility), the team should have enough backup options.
BEAM
2019 Event Ranking: 3
| Lineup locks: Trinity Thomas, Alyssa Baumann, Rachel Gowey, Megan Skaggs |
| Lineup options: Amelia Hundley, Payton Richards, Leah Clapper, Jazzy Foberg, Sydney Johnson-Scharpf |
Despite last year’s regional beam performance that shall not be named, Florida should feel as comfortable with its options on beam as it does on bars. Five members of that 2019 lineup return—Thomas, Baumann, Gowey, Skaggs, and Hundley—all of whom hasd NQSs of at least 9.880 last season and should be treated as default picks to return to the lineup. You’re happy to have any of those sets.
Beyond that, beam is a believable event for Richards to join, Clapper competed as needed last season for some strong scores when she would just pop into the anchor position and go 9.875, and there are some returners who haven’t really figured yet on beam but could, like Foberg and Johnson-Scharpf. There’s no one who’s obviously going to slide in for the occasional 9.950s that Boren was getting, but Florida shouldn’t have too much trouble bulking this lineup back up and scoring about at the same level as last season. Someone new is going to emerge for big scores, we’re just not sure who it is yet.
FLOOR
2019 Event Ranking: 3
| Lineup locks: Trinity Thomas, Alyssa Baumann, Nya Reed |
| Lineup options: Megan Skaggs, Payton Richards, Amelia Hundley, Rachel Gowey, Jazzy Foberg, Savannah Schoenherr, Sydney Johnson-Scharpf, Leah Clapper, Sierra Alexander |
While floor returns exactly as many lineup routines from last season as the other events, I’m less sold on the constancy of the six from 2019 to 2020. Aside from a few locks—Thomas, Baumann, and Reed will need to be there—there’s room for new people to earn some spots.
Floor is probably Richards’ strongest event and most likely lineup to crack with a very convincing DLO, and Schoenherr showed potential last season but didn’t quite make the final group. Expect both of them to contend with those who typically feature in the lineup like Hundley and Skaggs and (sometimes) Gowey for the remaining spots.
And let’s add two other people to the mix: Foberg should be exceptional on floor in college but didn’t make it into the lineup in her first season, and then we all expected big things on floor from Johnson-Scharpf, but she wasn’t at the required level last season. Has the passage of time allowed those two to reach the lineup level we expected of them?
Choices, choices, but regardless this DLO factory should remain quite competitive in 2020 as one of the top floor teams in the country.
Florida showed a video of Payton Richards doing a 1.5 on vault (not into a pit)
And Alyssa Baumann with a much improved Y 1.5
Sierra Alexander also has a new DLO on floor and should be a real contender to make lineups regularly. I would love to see her have a great senior season.
I hope Sydney Johnson-Scharpf has a better sophomore season. Her 2019 competition routines made me think that maybe she needed to retire because she wasn’t going to be physically able to do NCAA-level skills cleanly anymore (injuries, changing physique – there’s lots of good reasons why it just might not be sustainable for her despite hard work, so I don’t want to sound like I’m criticizing her dedication or efforts!).
She had sinus issues all last season. It’s hard to flip around when your head is in a fog.
Where did you read that?
If you haven’t had a chance to watch the videos from the intrasquad, you should here (this is only the top 6 on each event – most of the team did AA at the intrasquad): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZHB_LfpHGSktRqz9E2PVfT5oIkYe37G2&feature=share
A few things to add:
On vault, Baumann’s 1.5 looks significantly improved from last year and freshman Richards has a huge 1.5 that will definitely be in the lineup. The entire team looks great on bars. Based on these videos it looks like Richards will be the 6th, but live blogs from the intrasquad sound like Baumann looks the best she has looked on bars in her time at Florida. Hundley and Richards both look like strong additions to the beam lineup, Thomas, Baumann, Skaggs, and Gowey all look great and ready to come back and go 9.9+. On floor, Baumann did her DLO with a small spot and it looks much better than in past years. I think will see it this year. Richard’s has a great double layout. Gowey has a two pass routine that should be most consistent than in the past. Skaggs looks very strong. Thomas is excellent as usual.
Hundley has been in the beam lineup for 3 years.
It feels like Hundley has competed NCAA for 11 years.
I love Amelia Hundley and she is underappreciated both for her gymnastics and her ability to bend time.
Remember when she was a junior elite for like 50 years?