Gymnastics tops No. 9 Utah on Senior Night

The fifth-ranked Florida Gator gymnastics team matched its season-high mark en route to downing visiting, ninth-ranked Utah 197.550-196.500 before a Senior Night crowd of 4,859 at the O'Connell Center Friday night.

The Gators finished the dual-meet season with a 9-2 record, while the Utes, winners of 10 NCAA titles, finish at 7-3.

UF's five-member senior class of Amanda Castillo, Rebekah Zaiser, Courtney Gladys, Ashley Kerr and Maranda Smith, which was honored in a post-meet ceremony, was certainly center stage, but freshman Marissa King stole the show. The 2008 Great Britain Olympian set or tied her career-best marks in all four events in posting a career-high score of 39.575 to win her first outright all-around title, edging out Utah senior Daria Bijak (39.525) and fellow UF freshman Ashanee Dickerson (39.475) for top honors.

“It just feels like everything to do with college gymnastics, all the tips and all the coaching I've been getting, are all finally coming together,” said King, who had tied Dickerson for the top all-around spot in UF's last meet. “I'm really, really pleased with myself. To go out there and hit those routines is an amazing feeling.”

After tying their second-highest score of the season on their opening event, the vault (49.40), the Gators really took off on the parallel bars, where each of their first five competitors either tied or set a collegiate-best mark. By the time the session was over, Florida had put up a season-best bars score of 49.525 that ranks eighth all-time at UF and is the second-highest team score on the event in the nation this year.

“It was almost like automatic. It was like everybody was performing the best that they are capable of,” said UF head coach Rhonda Faehn. “It was almost kind of silly because you don't expect everybody to do it. It was like a little bit of a joy ride.”

Leading the way was Castillo, who tied her career-best with a 9.95 mark to win the event.

“That's one of the best routines she's ever done here,” Faehn said. “For her to go out in her last regular season meet here in the O'Dome and perform the way she did on bars, I was really excited and happy for her.”

UF athletes claimed the top spot in all four individual events. Sophomore Nicole Ellis scored a collegiate-best 9.925 to win the vault, King won the beam title, her first, with a 9.90, and Dickerson secured her sixth floor exercise title of the year with a collegiate-best 9.95.

After celebrating the victory, though, there were plenty of tears shed during the post-meet ceremony.

“I was very adamant prior to the meet. I told them ‘I don't want you to think I'm being cold, but I refuse to talk about it being senior night' because we had a competition to do and I didn't want to get emotional,” Faehn noted. “They are all unbelievable. I'm really excited and proud of the way the seniors performed, and felt, as a coach, that it went the way they wanted it to go, so it was good.”

The all-important postseason begins with the SEC Championships next Saturday in Jacksonville.

“This was a great springboard and a tune-up for our competition heading into SECs,” Faehn said. “Everybody is on the right page mentally and physically. We're pleased with how the season has played out so far.”