GAINESVILLE — Selena Harris-Miranda concluded her beam routine thinking the worst.
“It was probably the worst beam routine I’ve done this season,” she said.
Gymnastics judges work in mysterious ways, and a perfect 10 flashed on the jumbotron inside the O’Connell Center.
“It was fabulous to know that no matter what, it’s up to the judges,” Harris-Miranda said.
The Gators didn’t need any assistance from the judges vs. LSU on Sunday. They looked fabulous, to use Harris-Miranda’s favorite word, and orchestrated the nation’s best performance of the 2026 season.
Florida gymnastics defeated the Bayou Bengals 198.450-198.325 in Gainesville Sunday evening. It was the squad’s fourth straight victory at home over the women from Baton Rouge and ended a four-meet losing streak to LSU.
Coach Jenny Rowland called every Gators tussle with the Tigers a “roller coaster ride,” and Sunday’s meet provided the most twists and turns the SEC’s top gymnastics rivalry has seen.
UF’s tally was indeed the highest in the country this season and the fourth best in program history. The two squads combined for a score of 396.775. That ranks third all-time for combined score – behind Oklahoma (198.775) vs. Arkansas (198.025) in 2024 and Florida (198.575) vs. Auburn (198.575).
The Gators’ rollercoaster looked as scary as possible before the meet. Rowland admitted her team struggled during warmups. The performance marked a stark contrast from prior meets in 2026. Usually, UF practices phenomenally in warmups — to struggle at certain points in the competition.
“Our mindset changed today. We thought of it as just warm up — like we’re literally getting our bodies warm for when the actual thing happens,” Harris-Miranda said.
“We got that funky out before the meet,” senior eMjae Frazier added.
That might be why the gymnasts thought this week was different from the first routine. It wasn’t anything special — a 9.850 from Skylar Draser — but compared to her 8.975 last week at Texas Women’s, it was heaven.
The Gators vault score rose by half a point from last week, and it heralded a different kind of meet.
“I was happy about it, and I’m sure Adrian (Burde, Florida’s vault coach) was ecstatic about it,” Harris-Miranda said. “We were worried about Adrian, and I hope we put a smile on his face.”
Sunday’s meet answered a question that lingered for a week. What if Florida turned it around on vault and still dominated on bars and beam?
Turns out, it makes UF one of the nation’s top teams and capable of hanging with powerhouses LSU and Oklahoma.
Harris-Miranda served as the model of that consistency. She won the all-around with a 39.850 — the best of the season and second in her career. Every routine saw a 9.950, except for that 10 on beam.
She’s on her way to capping off a Gator career that saw her accomplish more in two years in the Orange and Blue than most in four years.
Furthermore, she re-found the joy in flipping. Rowland thought that was something she wrestled with in recent weeks.
“She was struggling comparing herself with others, thinking and looking. Hearing the noise and doubting herself,” Rowland said. “She’s enough, though. She is Selena Harris-Miranda, and she’s amazing.”
As her collegiate career rolls to an end, Harris-Miranda reminisced back to her first practice two years ago after she transferred from UCLA to Florida. She always hated beam, but Rowland told her she’d land a perfect 10 on it.
“I hated beam and sobbed all the time,” Harris-Miranda said. “Now I’m ending my career with it as my favorite event and maybe the one I’m best at.”
She now has two 10s in the event, and as a token of gratitude, she hugs Rowland after each time.
Rowland, meanwhile, expressed gratefulness in her team’s new strategy. She proclaimed that they, prior to Sunday, chased victory. In a sport like gymnastics, where you can’t control the other team, that’s a dangerous strategy.
Sunday, Rowland said UF allowed the win to happen.
“That’s something that’s been hindering the team in recent weeks,” Rowland said. “We’ve gotten better, but at the beginning of the season, they weren’t as present.”
Now, Florida needs to keep the energy up in a short turnaround. The Gators close out the regular season Friday at No. 22 Kentucky.
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. Read his coverage of the Gators’ national championship basketball season in “CHOMP-IONS!” — a hardcover coffee-table collector’s book from The Sun. Details at Florida.ChampsBook.com.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Selena Harris-Miranda joins Florida gymnastics legends in LSU upset
Reporting by Noah Ram, Gainesville Sun / The Gainesville Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
