The routine on the third Saturday in April has become commonplace for Florida gymnastics.
The posts from the team’s official X account from Dickies Arena in Fort Worth the same.
The sentiment from the ESPN announcers on the broadcast repeated for the last decade involving the Gators hasn’t changed:
Good, but just not good enough.
That saying rang true once again Saturday as the Gators finished in third place in the NCAA Team Final behind Oklahoma and LSU. The Sooners claimed their fourth national championship since 2022 and eighth under coach KJ Kindler. LSU came up just short in its attempt to win its second crown in three years under coach Jay Clark.
Meanwhile, Jenny Rowland remains without the big one since taking over for Rhonda Faehn in 2015.
The lack of a title has made Rowland part of the annual ritual as some “fans” always call for her dismissal.
That’s ludicrous. Rowland is one of the best coaches in the game, and Scott Stricklin isn’t going to grab someone better. The fact Rowland, in an arduous SEC, consistently takes Florida to the Final Four is beyond impressive.
There’s a downside to that high level of success. It alters the “Gator Standard.”
It’s no longer good enough to make it to Fort Worth.
That was especially true with this year’s squad..
This was the year for Florida gymnastics
For me, a painful thought entered as it became clear the Gators would fall to the Sooners and Tigers.
If not this year, then when?
Everything seemed set up for Florida. Skye Blakely and Kayla DiCello were back to near full health. Selena Harris-Miranda and eMjae Frazier added a 1-2 senior punch. Riley McCusker was dominant on bars, now with a national championship to her name.
This was the deepest Gator squad since Trinity Thomas’ departure, and it happened to coincide with what looked like down years for Oklahoma and LSU.
The Sooners had five freshmen and only one senior who played on Saturday.
The Bayou Bengals needed to replace Aleah Finnegan and Haleigh Bryant – two of the best in the game.
Despite the loss of Leanne Wong, the seas looked parted for Florida. Instead, on Saturday, underclassmen like Oklahoma’s Lily Pederson and LSU’s Kaitlin Chio stepped up.
This isn’t to say UF’s gymnasts didn’t. Harris-Miranda appeared robbed of a gym slam on the floor, and Blakely tallied a 9.900 or higher on three of four events.
But the Gators lacked the consistency required.
Two seasons ago, Florida exceeded expectations in the first season post Trinity Thomas. Last year, the shock of losing in the semifinals motivated the team and resulted in a “Promise.”
The concern for UF this year was it didn’t particularly “underperform” on any event. Except for beam, but that was due in part to an Alyssa Arana fall. Heartbreaking? Yes, but falls are a part of the game sometimes. It just came at the worst time.
The other event the Gators struggled on is becoming all too common.
We need to talk about the Gators vault
There’s no way around it. Florida needs to improve on vault to win it all. It probably didn’t matter for Saturday. Given the season worse beam score, the Gators would have needed higher than a 49.700 on the apparatus to win. That’s basically impossible.
UF still limped to a 49.250, the worst of any four teams, and it even caused Minnesota to leapfrog the orange and blue heading into the last event.
To be passed, albeit temporarily, by a team that literally no one expected to be there in the Golden Gophers? Unacceptable.
Florida ended the season ranked No. 9 in vault. No one on the team scored a 9.900 or higher in Saturday’s meet. Since 2023, UF has scored below a 49.375 on vault in nine of 11 semifinal or final meets.
UF is always strong on bars and beam, but the hole dug by vault is too much to overcome vs the giants of Oklahoma and LSU.
A lot of fans on social media called for coaching changes. I don’t know if that’s the answer. Often, those alterations are band-aiding solutions that don’t fully fix things.
But something needs to change in Gainesville. The Gators aren’t far off. They are still one of the elites in the sport and remain just as relevant as ever.
But Rowland and Co. are beginning to feel like the Buffalo Bills, and these gymnasts are far too talented to hold that moniker.
Maybe a year from now the posts and the sayings from the national media will be different, but until then, another offseason of what-if awaits.
Noah Ram covers Florida Gators athletics and Gainesville-area high school sports for The Gainesville Sun, GatorSports.com and the USA TODAY Network. Contact him at nram@usatodayco.com. Follow him on X @Noah_ram1 and on Instagram @Ramreporter.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Another offseason of what-ifs awaits Florida gymnastics after latest heartbreak | Ram
Reporting by Noah Ram, Gainesville Sun / The Gainesville Sun
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