2023 – 2nd – National Runner-Up
2022 – 2nd – National Runner-Up
2021 – 4th – National Finalist
2020 – 2nd – COVID
2019 – 10th – Eliminated in Regional Final
2018 – 3rd – National Finalist
2017 – 3rd – National Finalist
2016 – 4th – National Finalist
2015 – 1st – National Champion
2014 – 1st – National Champion

Team Total
1. 198.775 (April 2, 2022)
2. 198.575 (March 4, 2022)
3. 198.425 (March 18, 2023)
3. 198.425 (March 1, 2013)
5. 198.400 (April 6, 2013)

Team Vault — 49.725 (March 4, 2022)
Team Bars — 49.800 (February 24, 2023)
Team Beam — 49.750 (April 2, 2022)
Team Floor — 49.875 (January 24, 2014)

All-Around
1. Trinity Thomas, 39.900 (April 2, 2022)
1. Trinity Thomas, 39.900 (February 12, 2021)
3. Leanne Wong, 39.875 (April 2, 2022)
3. Trinity Thomas, 39.875 (March 21, 2022)
5. Trinity Thomas, 39.8625 (April 16, 2022)

Individual Vault — 10.000
–Trinity Thomas x5
–Leanne Wong
–Alex McMurtry x3
–Bridget Sloan
–Kytra Hunter x2
–Savannah Evans
–Susan Hines x4

Individual Bars — 10.000
–Kayla DiCello x2
–Trinity Thomas x5
–Leanne Wong x3
–Alex McMurtry x4
–Bridget Sloan x2
–Mackenzie Caquatto
–Melanie Sinclair x3
–Erin Pendleton
–Amy Myerson
–Kristen Guise

Individual Beam — 10.000
–Trinity Thomas x6
–Leanne Wong x2
–Leah Clapper
–Rachel Gowey
–Alex McMurtry
–Bridget Sloan x3
–Kristen Stucky

Individual Floor — 10.000
–Trinity Thomas x12
–Sloane Blakely
–Nya Reed x2
–Kennedy Baker x3
–Alex McMurtry
–Bridget Sloan x2
–Kytra Hunter x4
–Chrissy Vogel
–Pam Titus

The 2023 season ended with a now-familiar sentiment for Florida: Almost.

For a second-straight year, the Gators ended the championship as valiant runners-up to Oklahoma, peaking at the right time and putting together a strong 198 performance in the final meet—with maybe only 3-ish routines that didn’t live up to their potential—that still wasn’t quite enough to knock off the champions. It’s reasonable for Florida to start asking, what more can we do?

Florida 2024 was always going to feel the gaping void left by Trinity Thomas’s irreplaceable presence in all four lineups, but heaping on the Olympic deferral of Kayla DiCello, the transfer of Savannah Schoenherr, and the injury to Riley McCusker means Florida has a tough road ahead to remain a championship favorite. It will take a village.

Alyssa Arana hails from Danell’s Mom Gymnastics (aka Levya’s) and won both bars and beam at the event specialist session of this year’s Dev Nationals. Her lovely gymnastics on both events has made her an underdog favorite to find her way into a Florida lineup or two this year ahead of some bigger names.

Kaylee Bluffstone also had a breakout performance at this year’s Dev Nationals with top-5 finishes on both vault and floor. Her Y1.5 on vault and full-in on floor will make her a compelling candidate for either lineup.

Gabby Disidore made a brief and occasional venture into elite but has been able to compete only sparingly over the last couple years because of injury. Her best elite results came on bars, where she has a good shot of making her way into Florida’s lineup.

Skylar Draser also put in her time in elite before returning to L10 for the 2023 season, when she placed 3rd on bars in Senior C at Dev Nationals. She looks to provide a reasonable contender routine on each event as she—in that very Payton Richards kind of way—could be anywhere from a regular all-arounder to a spot depth contributor depending on consistency and the needs of the team.

Danie Ferris dominated 2022 Dev Nationals as a junior, winning vault, bars, and floor in her division with a 10.000 on vault. But, she missed the 2023 L10 season, and then again did not appear at Florida’s exhibition on Monday. If healthy, her Y1.5 on vault in particular stands out as having fewer built-in leg deductions than several of the other options. 

Anya Pilgrim has cleaned up in Level 10 over the last two years since dropping down from US elite (she reached worlds this year representing Barbados) and stands out as the most likely of this first-year class to become a star at Florida. She should make multiple lineups, if not all four, and contribute essential scores. 

Victoria Nguyen (SR)

From being a UB/BB specialist at Georgia who got mostly 9.850s and was going to find it soooo difficult to make the more challenging Florida lineups after her transfer, Victoria Nguyen broke through last season with what culminated in a critical all-around debut in the national championship.

This year, Florida will require that level of performance from Nguyen much more often. Leanne Wong now owns the best routine on Florida’s roster on every event—but has also been going non-stop this entire Olympic cycle and can’t be expected to do absolutely everything all the time. Nguyen, then, looks poised to become the next-most-important all-arounder on Florida’s team this year, a gymnast I have penciled in on every event every week.

2023 Event Ranking: 5

Putting only Leanne Wong in the locked category reflects less a Florida weakness on this event and more that…there are basically 8 somewhat similar-looking Y1.5s on this team and it feels like any 5 of them could make the final lineup right now. Payton Richards reigns as the #2 returning vaulter for Florida behind Wong after a resurgent 2023 season, but is there a believable situation where she gets bumped out of the lineup by all these first years with 1.5s? Yes. Regardless of which way it goes, it’s a lineup that should have the “Look Ma, All 10.0s” factor going for it that is basically a requisite for teams hoping to win a national championship now.

Among returners, Victoria Nguyen should be a welcome regular addition to the lineup, but perhaps most importantly, Florida really needs Every Week Sloane Blakely in 2024. Blakely’s first two seasons have been marked by being in and out of the vault and floor lineups, where you never really know whether it’s going to be a perfect gift, or a weird fall, or she’s only on UB/BB that meet. She’s easily a top-6 talent on all four events, and a first-class Florida meet in 2024 would have Sloane Blakely hitting the all-around as a major feature.

2023 Event Ranking: 2

Florida will probably have to accept the loss of some 10.000s on bars. With no Thomas and no DiCello, who combined for 11 scores of 9.975 or 10.000 last season (kind of a lot!), not to mention no McCusker, who had finally found her way on bars starting in February, there’s a Saharan gap forming in this lineup.

Still, plenty of high-level bars here. As the undisputed star of the lineup now, it feels like Wong is going to get a 10 every time she sticks in 2024, and Victoria Nguyen is the most likely heir to a late-lineup 9.975 position. Sloane Blakely has always been a weekly leadoff 9.850-9.900 here, and there seems no reason to shift that.

In the search for those who can translate standout elements into a routine where there’s nothing to deduct, Ellie Lazzari’s exceptional Pak seems a great choice as she adds back the full repertoire of routines that saw her compete the all-around in her first season. Among the newcomers, I would put Disidore at the top of the list for her amplitude and crisp form, but Pilgrim and Arana should also have the handstand positions to make an excellent case.

2023 Event Ranking: 3

It feels as though we have at least a little bit of clarity on Florida’s beam lineup because Wong, Lazzari, and Blakely competed every old second of 2023 for 9.9+ and should all return to the lineup to ensure that 49.500 is a starting point for a beam total.

A theoretical #1-ranked Florida beam lineup in 2024 would also have to include Nguyen, who came in for five routines last year and will top the list of contending options in terms of pure skill execution and score ceiling. Which gets to the conundrum for Florida. You could have a great new 9.900 routine come into a lineup, but if she’s replacing Trinity, that’s a downgrade. Who has the form to go 9.950+?

Anya Pilgrim is a strong contender here with a very smooth beam routine, one that shouldn’t face the classic back-leg-on-leaps deduction. I also like the potential option of Skylar Draser in the role of Sturdy East German Who Stabilizes the Lineup.

As for the Morgan Hurd of it all, you obviously want her in this lineup. Her best-case-scenario ceiling is…it’s Morgan Hurd, but her routines last season just weren’t there. Much like McCusker on bars in 2023, Hurd is going to have to prove that she has the weekly consistency to earn a spot in a tough lineup. But if she does have it this year, well then it’ll be like Florida just got a bonus world champion as a new recruit.

2023 Event Ranking: 2

Florida should not lack for floor options in 2024, even if the lineup picture is still fairly fuzzy beyond Wong—as well as Nguyen, whose performances in 2023 should solidify a spot for her this season. Payton Richards also often gets the short end of the stick in Florida team prognostication, mostly because of her down year in 2022, but she had a streak of 7 consecutive floor scores of 9.9+ last season that the team wouldn’t just sneeze at.

As on vault, the best possible Florida floor lineup will feature a consistently-landing Sloane Blakely, and as on beam, the best possible Florida floor lineup will feature Morgan Hurd emoting the crap out of the entire state and doing a DLO for 9.950. Put those two in the mix, along with an Anya Pilgrim DLO, a crisp routine from Lazarri, or Kaylee Bluffstone—who can bring classic strong-consistent-E-pass gymnastics to the lineup and should see at least some time—and Florida can get to a place where we’re seeing a championship-level floor rotation, even without Trinity’s 10s.