Florida Wins SEC Gymnastics Championship by 0.025
TULSA, Okla. — Florida gymnastics is back on top of the SEC for the first time since 2023. The No. 3 Gators upset regular-season SEC and reigning NCAA champion Oklahoma by just 0.025 — 198.175 to 198.15, the narrowest margin possible.
“Still surreal, and as always, it’s a great day to be a Florida Gator. So proud of this team. They ‘did it big’ tonight,” UF coach Jenny Rowland said of the program’s 13th SEC championship. “It was a very free and very fierce competition tonight.”
No. 2 LSU, which won this meet last year, and No. 4 Alabama followed with a 198.95 and 197.475, respectively, on Saturday night at the BOK Center.
No session-one team was able to crack into the top four despite a season-high performance for Georgia of 197.45 to sit in fifth. Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky and Auburn rounded out the SEC programs.
“Really you couldn’t ask for more on this stage with the teams that were on the field,” Rowland said. “Really competitive. They fought hard. They were true Gators tonight.”
Three Gators ranked among the best all-around performers in the conference, placing second, third and fourth. Junior Kayla DiCello led the Gators with a 39.725 to follow all-around champion Kailin Chio of LSU (39.775).
“I’m just really excited to take all of this in,” DiCello said. “I took in every single moment today and just continue working to finish out the rest of the season.”
Senior Selena Harris-Miranda placed third with a 49.65 and sophomore Skye Blakely came in fourth, scoring a 49.625.
Harris-Miranda also won the SEC individual title on the bars, recording her first 10 on bars as a Gator in a tear-filled moment. This is the second year in a row that she put up a 10 at the SEC Gymnastics Championship, notching a perfect score on vault last year.
“I was super proud,” Harris-Miranda said. “That’s what I do in the gym, and I’m just so happy Owen (Field) and I got to experience that moment up there. He was like ‘hug me longer because I’m crying,’ and I said ‘me too.'”
For the first time in a conference championship since 2007, the four teams in session two are the top-four teams in the country. This challenge proved to be as expected, coming down to the final routine of the night in a storybook ending in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The Gators held the lead after one rotation, posting a 49.525 on beam. The rotation was highlighted by a pair of 9.95s from DiCello and Harris-Miranda.
“I feel like we’ve recently put it together, and when we started the meet, I just knew everything was going to fall into place, especially when we started beam. The energy wasn’t too high or too low,” Harris-Miranda said.
LSU and Alabama followed with a 49.475 and 49.425, respectively. Oklahoma, the top vault team in the country, had uncharacteristic mistakes on landings, posting a 49.325 with just two 9.9s to sit in fourth.
However, that deficit did not last long. The Sooners went to bars and put up scores all above 9.9 to sit in third after the second rotation.
Meanwhile, on floor, Florida left some room for LSU to sneak into the top spot. Senior eMjae Frazier, DiCello and Harris-Miranda notched scores of 9.9 to lead the Gators in the rotation, while LSU put up two 9.95s from junior Konnor McClain and Chio.
Following the second rotation, LSU, Florida and Oklahoma sat within 0.5 of one another.
The Gators continued to struggle with finding the stick on vault but still recorded a 49.425 on the event. Junior Anya Pilgrim led off the rotation with a season-high 9.9 that was matched by DiCello and Blakely. Harris-Miranda under rotated to mark a 9.8 that would be dropped.
Oklahoma had a lights-out 49.625 performance on beam, including senior Faith Torrez’s first perfect 10 of the season. The Sooners regained a 0.5 lead against LSU, leaving Florida and Alabama behind in third and fourth, respectively.
What seemed like a two-horse race between Oklahoma and LSU turn quickly to that between the Sooners and the Gators. Similar to all of the session-two teams, the Tigers struggled to find the landing on vault, scoring a 49.45 on the apparatus.
Oklahoma led Florida by a solid margin of 0.175, but the Gators’ record of NCAA history-book bar routines at the SEC Gymnastics Championship came back to bite the Sooners.
Last season, the Gators made history by posting a 49.85 on bars, and this year, they were not far off that mark, securing a 49.8, the sixth-highest score in NCAA history.
Frazier led off with 9.9 for the fifth time this season ahead of Pilgrim’s 9.925. Blakely and DiCello notched a pair of 9.975s before Harris-Miranda’s emotional performance. Defending SEC Bars Champion Riley McCusker followed last year’s perfect 10 with a 9.925.
“It feels amazing,” Harris-Miranda said about the team win. “All I could do at first was cry, but then we were all screaming and jumping around. It just feels like the biggest accomplishment right now, but yes, feels fabulous.”
Oklahoma recorded a 49.6, but freshman Mackenzie Estep’s 9.95 was not quite enough to clinch the title in front of a large Sooner crowd.
“It just felt like it was Florida territory the whole time we were here,” Harris-Miranda said. “I think that made everyone else feel more at ease, and obviously, it ended up really good.”
Now that the title returns to Gainesville, eyes turn to where each program will land in the NCAA postseason. Regionals begin April 1 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Corvallis, Oregon, Lexington, Kentucky and Tempe, Arizona. The selection show is set for noon Monday on ESPNU.
SEC Individual Champions
Vault: Kailin Chio (LSU) – 9.975
Bars: Selena Harris-Miranda (Florida) – 10.0
Beam: Faith Torrez (Oklahoma) – 10.0
Floor: Gabby Gladieux (Alabama), Kaliya Lincoln (LSU), Keira Wells and Mackenzie Estep (Oklahoma) – 9.95
All Around: Kailin Chio (LSU) – 39.775
Category: Feature Sports News, Gator Sports, Gators Gymnastics, Gymnastics
