Florida Gymnastics Looking to Finish regular Season Strong

The Florida gymnastics team wraps up the regular season against Texas Woman’s University Friday in the O’Connell Center. This is the first meeting between the two teams and it is Florida’s Senior Night. There will be a post-meet ceremony celebrating the careers of Kytra Hunter, Jamie Shisler, Rachel Spicer, and Kiersten Wang. Florida coach Rhonda Faehn says it will be an emotional night all around.

“[They] have brought so much, not only to the University of Florida but to our program… it’s going to be a special night to honor them.”

The Gators are coming off a close loss to top ranked Oklahoma. At that meet, Oklahoma posted the nation’s top score of 198.50 with Florida close behind at 198.10. Despite the loss, the Gators had an incredible performance, taking two event titles each with a near-perfect score of 9.975 with Alex McMurtry on Vault and Bridget Sloan on Bars. Following last week’s meet, Hunter was recognized as SEC Gymnast of the Week for the third time this season. Faehn says she was proud of how her gymnasts performed.

“Kytra Hunter was just stunning, as usual, just phenomenal and she keeps getting better. So it was full of so many positives,” Faehn said.

Texas Woman’s University is coming off a loss to Arizona last Sunday. The team posted their top score on March first at a home quad meet. In Friday’s meet, there will be three US Olympians in the arena; UF’s Rhonda Faehn (1988), Bridget Sloan (2008), and TWU’s coach’s assistant Courtney McCool-Griffeth (2004).

Florida’s seniors finish out their college careers with many accomplishments. In their time they have won Florida’s first two NCAA Championship titles, two SEC team titles, and are 27-0 in home action. As the team prepares for the SEC Championships and strives to return to the national championship, Faehn says she believes they have every capability of making it.

“We are getting there. Like I said we’re still trying to fine-tune our lineups…hopefully what we put in the lineups this Friday will be the lineups hopefully that we’ll have for SEC Championships.”

To listen to Rhonda Faehn’s complete audio clips, click below.

Rhonda Faehn talking about Senior Night.

Rhonda Faehn talking about her team’s performance at Oklahoma.

Rhonda Faehn talking about improving before NCAA Championships.