Florida gymnastics is flipping back to Gainesville tonight as they host Missouri. The Gators are coming off a road win against Arkansas where Florida shared a part of every event title despite the fact the team was not at full strength because of injuries. Florida coach Rhonda Faehn says she’s proud of how her team performed by avoiding the distractions.
“Instead of thinking, ‘Wow we’re short, we’re down a few of our athletes,’ instead they rose to the occasion and had a tremendous amount of energy,” Faehn said.
Freshman Erica Fassbender made her All-Around debut at this meet, picking up that title while sharing the uneven bars title, and then being honored as SEC Freshman of the Week. Fellow freshman All-Arounder Kennedy Baker was out last weekend due to a concussion, but Faehn has high hopes of her returning to the competition tonight.
Missouri is coming off both a win and a loss in their two meets last weekend, dropping the meet to Kentucky and defeating Lindenwood University. In the 2014 meeting between the Gators and Tigers, the Gators put up the nation’s top road score of the season and their second highest score of the year. Adding to that victory was Kytra Hunter’s 10.0 on floor and Bridget Sloan’s All-Around win. Going into tonight’s meet, Faehn says she loves the team’s attitude at this point in the season.
“Each and every one of them, they come in and they just want to contribute. Their sole goal is to do whatever they can to help our team be successful.”
The meet will begin at 6:45 PM in the O’Connell Center and will be streamed live on the SEC Network Plus at 7 PM.
To listen to Rhonda Faehn’s audio clips, click below.
Rhonda Faehn talking about the team avoiding distractions in the Arkansas meet