Special to Gatorsports.com
FORTH WORTH, Texas — Florida senior Alicia Boren earned a share of the NCAA Gymnastics Championships’ floor exercise title in Friday’s competition.
Boren posted a 9.95 for her signature event in the first rotation of NCAA Semifinal II competition and that score held as the overall floor high through the remaining three rotations.
Boren was one of four Gators competing as individuals in Friday’s NCAA Championships semifinal competition in the Fort Worth Convention Center. Joining Boren on the NCAA floor awards podium was freshman Trinity Thomas. She shared seventh overall at 9.925.
Freshman Savannah Schoenherr shared eighth overall in semifinal II vault competition (9.875). Sophomore Alyssa Baumann turned in a 9.7625 on beam.
In semifinal II all-around competition, Boren tied for sixth at 39.375. It was Boren’s 54th consecutive and overall all-around appearance, making her the Gators’ all-time leader by eight competitions.
In Friday’s NCAA Championships’ team competition, UCLA (197.675 – Semi I), LSU (197.5125 – Semi I), Oklahoma (197.85 – Semi II) and Denver (197.0375 – Semi II) advanced to Saturday’s NCAA Championship final. That competition begins at 7 p.m. ET and airs live on ESPNU. This is the first year for a four-team final format, as the Super Six format ran from 1993-2018.
Women’s golf: At Birmingham, Ala., Florida finished the stroke play portion of the SEC Championships at the top of the leaderboard and junior Marta Perez took second place individually.
After leading the entire second round and first half of the final round, Perez finished stroke play with a score of 214 and the second-place individual title on a three-way tie with Ole Miss and Arkansas. Maria Fassi of Arkansas took home the individual SEC title with an impressive score of 210 (-6). Freshman Clara Manzalini finished stroke play in a four-way tie for fifth with a final tournament score of 215.
Junior Sierra Brooks was right behind Manzalini, finishing with a 216 and ninth overall. She was the only player in the field of 70 to finish on par. There were eight players under par with the rest of the field finishing stroke play over par. Sophomores Elin Esborn and Addie Baggarly finished the tournament inside the top 30 at T21 and T29, respectively. Esborn closed with an overall score of 221 and 75 in the final round while Baggarly finished with a 223 and 76 in the final round.
Florida heads into the quarterfinals of match play as the No. 1 seed and will face the No. 8 seed Ole Miss, beginning Saturday at 8 a.m. ET. The semifinals will be played Saturday afternoon with the four winning teams. The Championship round will tee off Sunday morning with coverage on SEC Network beginning at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Men’s golf: At Columbus, Ohio, Florida sits fourth on the leaderboard after the first round of the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate hosted by Ohio State.
Due to weather, the 54-hole tournament has been shortened to 36 holes. The field was supposed to play 36 Friday and 18 Saturday, but only completed 18 Friday and will finish with 18 today.
The par 71 Scarlet Course at Ohio State is proving to be a tough one, as no team finished Friday’s round under par. Leading the field is Michigan State, which carded a team score of 294 (+10). Florida sits 10 strokes back in fourth place with three players inside the top 25. There are only three players in the field of 78 that scored under par on the first 18 holes.
Sophomore John Axelsen leads the Gators at T14 with a first round score of 75 (+4).
Women’s tennis: At College Station, Texas, Florida (12-11) was eliminated from the SEC tournament in the quarterfinals with a 4-3 loss to No. 5 South Carolina (18-3). The No. 7 seed Gators came back to equalize after trailing 3-1, but couldn’t break through in the end as South Carolina recorded the deciding win on court five.
UF won the doubles point in convincing fashion, but the No. 2 seed Gamecocks responded quickly by winning three straight singles matches. Sydney Berlin and McCartney Kessler each posted winning tallies for the Gators in singles. Florida’s doubles teams put the Gators up early, as Kessler-Victoria Emma and the freshmen duo of Berlin-Marlee Zein won their matches.
We are a disappointed bunch,” UF coach Roland Thornqvist said. “I thought we had a chance to get them here but credit to South Carolina. “”I think we’re close, but we’re clearly not all the way there. It takes a complete performance from six players for us to get there.”
Florida will learn of its NCAA Tournament future when matchups and seeds are announced April 29.
Lacrosse: At Storrs, Conn., No. 18 Florida (9-6 ,3-0 AAC) is on the road for the final time in the regular season today for a 12 p.m. match against UConn (2-13, 0-3).
