Florida gymnastics set for SEC Championships; Gators to compete in night session

The No. 2 Florida gymnastics team looks to add to its regular-season trophies at the 2022 Southeastern Conference Championships meet Saturday in the Legacy Arena. 

The 41st edition of the SEC Championships makes its seventh appearance in Birmingham, Alabama, since the event moved to neutral sites starting in 2001. Nine of the 20 neutral-site SEC meets were won by a team from the state of the host city (Alabama 2021, 2014, 2011, 2003; Georgia 2008, 2005, 2004; Florida 2010; LSU 2019). Each SEC Championship since 2006 has been contested on podium. 

The meet will be televised on the SEC Network. 

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With the addition of Missouri to the league in 2013, the format for the SEC Championships moved to two four-team sessions. Teams seeded No. 5-8 (based on March 14 national qualifying scores) compete in the opening session at 3:30 p.m., followed by seeds 1-4 at 8 p.m. EST. Scores from the two sessions combine to determine the team and event champions. As the evening session's top seed, Florida has the Olympic rotation (vault-bars-beam-floor).

All SEC programs enter the tournament among the nation's top 25 — No. 2 Florida, No. 5 LSU, No. T6 Alabama, No. T6 Auburn, No. 9 Kentucky, No. 11 Missouri, No. 17 Arkansas and No. 22 Georgia. 

UF coach Jenny Rowland called the SEC "the most exciting meet of the year. ... The SEC is so competitive, the hardest in the nation." 

While winning the competition would be "fabulous," Rowland said that's not the Gators' goal. The main goal "is for the Gators to beat the Gators. ... This team has continued to get better week in and week out."