Gator Gymnastics Clawed By LSU

The Gators Gymnastics team suffered their first season loss at home to the No. 7 LSU Tigers.

Stumbles by Bridget Sloan and Alex McMurtry hurt the Gators chances for the win and  they eventually fell to the Tigers by only .025 points. This is Sloan’s first loss at home of her career. While it was a tough loss for the Gators it wasn’t all bad news. Gators head coach Jenny Rowland says there were still improvements at this meet. Also All-American Kennedy Baker won her second consecutive all-around title with a score of 39.625, her third all-time.

LSU Tigers win. This is the Gators first regular-season home loss since Jan. 18, 2008. pic.twitter.com/T4QqRnydaD

— Gator Gymnastics (@GatorsGym) February 27, 2016

The first fall of the night came from McMurtry on bars. A slip from the bar is what caused her to land back first onto the mat. Motivated, she immediately got back up and continued right where she left off. A solid comeback by McMurtry was what enabled her to pull off a score of 9.025. This is the same event she scored a perfect ten on during the Alabama meet. McMurtry says that the mistakes the team makes motivates them to do better.

The second and third stumbles of the night unexpectedly came from Gator great Bridget Sloan on beam and floor. An unsteady landing on the beam caused Sloan to fall off leaving the crowd stunned. Frustrated Sloan got back on beam to perform the rest of her routine perfectly. Fired up, Sloan was able to land a score of 9.300. This is the event where Sloan scored a ten during the Alabama meet.

The mistakes didn’t end there for Sloan. On floor, a powerful tumble pass caused her to land outside of boundaries leading to a foul in the middle of the routine. Although the mistake is not as severe as a fall, her score of 9.725 was the lowest score for the Gators on floor. Sloan says the mistakes came from her overthinking her routines.

Next up, the Gators will travel to Kentucky to take on the Wildcats March 4.