WATCH: Florida gymnastics celebrates SEC title win
The Florida gymnastics team continued its memorable season Saturday by winning the SEC Championship in an impressive performance. The Gators won the event with a combined score of 198.425, which is a meet record.
It is the second straight SEC title for program.
The Gators won outright or tied for each of the event’s five individual titles with star Trinity Thomas leading the way. Thomas won the all around, uneven bars and the floor routine.
She became the seventh competitor in SEC history win back-to-back titles in the all-around competition; four of those competitors have been on Florida. Thomas is also the second woman to get two 10.0’s in the same SEC Championships, following Jenny Hansen of Kentucky in 1994.
Nobody else notched a 10.
Thomas currently has an On3 NIL Valuation of $109k, which is the highest-valuation on the team. The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets high school and college athletes’ projected annual value (PAV). The NIL valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time.
Leanne Wong claimed the title on the balance beam and Sloane Blakely shared the vault title. It was Wong’s second balance beam title.
“The team’s going to take away a lot of memories from tonight,” Florida head coach Jenny Rowland said. “First and foremost from today, we had great normmentum. That’s the Gator-created word that was our word for the week. It means the act of being normal and creating momentum at the same time. They did a fantastic job. And I think that’s just going to carry them through the postseason.”
The Gators have one 12 SEC titles.
The previous team record at the SEC Championships was 198.375, set by Georgia in 1997.
“The level of competition tonight was insane. Today, all day from top to bottom on all four events. Really, the SEC just continues to prove what a strong force we are. Just really proud to be part of the SEC,” Rowland said.