When asked about what the Gators need to do to make that final step over the line this weekend after coming in second two years in a row, commentator/Olympian Aly Raisman said “I like to say ‘winning second place’ because I think there’s so much pressure in our society to win, and we’re so focused on who’s going to be the national champion… but I also think it’s really important to take a moment and recognize that consistency and how impressive it is.”
A lot of people in the gymnastics fandom would agree with her, particularly after what happened to Simone Biles with the pressure to win in Tokyo… but does that mean the Gators, or their fans, want a win any less?
Though in her first season of commentating, Raisman hit the nail on the head with what we’re all wondering. “I think that it comes down to – on that day, which team is mentally the most together, feeling the most calm, and just does what they do every single day in the gym? It’s so much easier said than done.”
This has been the problem that has plagued the Gators all season. The first truly complete meet we saw from them in 2024 was at regional finals, where their dominant performance sent them cruising ahead to nationals without a hitch. At every other meet this season, the Gators had a score 9.75 or below they needed to drop in at least one rotation, often more than one, and they’ve only had three meets without a single fall. It’s been hard for them to find a groove, whether that’s because they’ve been struggling with focus, dealing with illness or injury, or simply striving too hard for perfection.
However, Raisman’s co-commentator, Olympian John Roethlisberger had great insight for what Florida might do to flip the script that’s expected for this weekend: “Florida’s going to have just pretend they’re in the O-Dome! They perform so well at home, they performed so well at Regionals – they’re going to have to repeat their Regional performance.”
If the Gators can indeed repeat what they did at Regional Finals, a dominant 198.325, that’s less than a tenth behind Oklahoma’s Regional Final performance in Ann Arbor. Florida will be in an excellent position to compete with the Sooners… but once again, even their best could still not be enough. In Roethlisberger’s words, is this really just a “wait til next year” year?
The Gators are missing many key pieces of what one might consider their championship team. Last year, they still had Trinity Thomas and Kayla DiCello, and Riley McCusker was healthy enough to compete. This year, Thomas has graduated, DiCello is deferring for Paris, McCusker is injured, and that’s not taking into account the deferment of superstar commit Skye Blakely. They’ll never get Thomas back, but with those other three athletes next year, the Gators’ chances will be better – so why all the hard work now? Why the careful pacing, why the new approach, why the different prep methods we discussed in our Regionals preview?
Raisman actually may have said the answer without realizing it: consistency.
Even if this team doesn’t win this year – and I’m not saying it’s not possible, because it absolutely is – everything they do now will be strong preparation for an even better attempt next season. Jenny Rowland has talked before about getting 1% better every day, but that doesn’t just apply within a season or a school year. That applies within an athlete’s career, and within her own career as well. Every new tactic, every new challenge, every new choice this year is better preparing all of these athletes and the coaching staff to fight harder for each and every tenth when the moment comes, whether that’s this year, next year, or some year down the line.
If it’s going to be this year… let’s talk about what needs to happen, rotation by rotation.
Semifinals: Floor, Vault, Bars, Beam
Every team in this semifinal is at least a three-time national title winner. Only two of them can make it to finals. The Gators have no room for error.
Rotation 1: Floor is the one place the Gators have not started yet this year in any meet, so this will be one of the few situations where their preparation has a gap. It’s also the event where things have varied the most this season, and where we still have the most question marks as far as a final six for the lineup.
Podium training today and warmups tomorrow will likely largely be focused on figuring out who is coping with the podium changes the best, and those will be the six that make the lineup. This team can’t afford having someone bounce out of bounds or trip on their dance series as has happened in past seasons’ podium outings, because their semifinal is the more competitive one by far. They need to put in the most sure bets for the best chance at a good floor score – Blakely, Pilgrim, Wong, and Nguyen all feel like locks. The final two will be chosen from Lazzari, Brubach, Bluffstone, Hurd, Ferris, and Richards if she’s feeling up to it. After two solid showings on floor at Regionals, Lazzari feels likely, but the sixth will almost certainly be a tossup based on who is warming up best.
Oklahoma will start on vault, Alabama on bars, and Utah on beam. If Florida is in third to start, that’s okay – the Crimson Tide are starting on their best event, so they’ll expect to start out in front, or at least close behind Oklahoma, who are also quite strong on vault. Florida just needs to do whatever it takes to make the gap between second and third as small as possible, and preferably keep Utah in its dust.
Rotation 2: Vault just needs to be a repeat from Regionals – sticks or small shuffles, six 10.0 starts, the cleanest form they can muster while maintaining good air awareness and preparation for the landing. Again, they cannot have anyone sitting or stumbling; the lineup needs to be the surest bets they have. Lazzari feels like a bit of a risk to me, but there has to be a reason Blakely didn’t vault at Regionals. Draser, Nguyen, Pilgrim, Ferris, and Wong all should belong to the “sure bet” group, so it’ll be a matter of who warms up best between Blakely and Lazzari as to who the sixth is. If anyone is having a shaky warmup, I also wouldn’t put it past AC Burde to put Bri Edwards in, whose full is almost always good for a 9.8-9.85. It’s a lower ceiling than everyone else on the list, but she’s incredibly consistent.
At the halfway point, the Gators need to shift into second – Oklahoma will go to bars, perhaps its best event, while Alabama goes to beam and Utah to floor. Floor is Utah’s best event, but vault is also Florida’s best. The Gators want to be ahead of Utah after their best events to feel the most comfortable about qualifying, although I doubt they’ll be breathing any sighs of relief until the very end.
Rotation 3: Bars is another question mark: somehow, it’s been Florida’s worst event this year, when historically, it’s been one of the program’s best. Everyone will need to be on their game and in their bubble – no goofs on pirouettes, no missed hands on release catches, no brushing the floor with feet on paks, and certainly no mistimed dismount pings. They can’t afford any silly errors, and if at all possible, dismounts need to be stuck. Judges have proved this season that that exclamation point on a routine can help erase other minor mistakes earlier in the set.
The lineup was sorely missing Gabby Disidore at Regionals, so hopefully she’ll be back in, because this team needs a few more sure bets, and she’s been maybe the most consistent member of the squad this season. The six here seem locked – Blakely, Nguyen, Lazzari, Disidore, Pilgrim, Wong – provided Disidore is alright, but if she is ill or injured and that’s what kept her out of Regionals, then Draser seems her likeliest replacement. However, per the Gators Gymnastics Instagram story, Alyssa Arana also warmed up bars today, so she could also step in if someone isn’t warming up well. She seems like a riskier choice, with her only competition hit coming in an exhibition routine, but crazier things have happened.
Facing Oklahoma beam, Utah vault, and Alabama floor, the Gators will hope to be in second still after the third rotation, as Utah and Alabama will also be on their weakest events. The goal is to maintain whatever lead they have after the second rotation as best they can – give up as little as possible on bars and hope that the Utes and the Tide have a harder time with their worst apparatuses.
Rotation 4: The Gators will finish the night on beam, which could either be a really good thing or a really bad thing. It could be an exceptional rotation if they’re able to stay in their bubble all night, stay focused, not try too hard, and just do their normal… and it could also be exceptional if they give up a little too much on bars and have to fight their way back into second in the final six routines. However, if the pressure gets to be too much, things could go south very quickly. We’ve seen what this team is like when they get in their heads.
This lineup is perhaps the most solidified. Blakely, Draser, Nguyen, Lazzari, Pilgrim, and Wong are the clear six here, even despite some issues from Lazzari on and off this year. When she’s on, she is ON; her score ceiling is too high to leave her off, and if the lineup is arranged right, the likelihood of a mistake from her cascading into the rest of the lineup is very low.
In this final rotation, Alabama will go to vault, Utah to bars, and Oklahoma to floor. Floor is the Sooners’ worst event, so if they’re going to have a flub, it’s probably there, but they’re not exactly mistake-prone. Vault is Alabama’s second-worst event, as is bars for Utah, so with one of the more positive beam scenarios, Florida should theoretically be able to pull ahead of both of them in the end. They don’t have to beat OU, they just have to qualify. Pacing has been everything for this team, so it isn’t time to give that up – save enough gas in the tank for a knockout performance on Saturday.
Finals: Bars, Beam, Floor, Vault
As long as they do qualify, the directive for the Gators in finals will be more of the same, just better. Make necessary adjustments after whatever occurs in semifinals, and then have an absolutely lights-out competition to make it a fight to the finish.
I’m not going to rehash the goals or lineups for each event, so let’s look at how the likely qualifiers stack up rotation-by rotation. If we go event by event by NQS after the regular season, we get a little something like this:
| Rotation 1 | Rotation 2 | Rotation 3 | Rotation 4 | Final | |
| Oklahoma | Vault: 49.545 Place: 2 | Bars: 49.7 R2 Total: 99.245 Place: 2 | Beam: 49.725 R3 Total: 148.970 Place: 1 | Floor: 49.690 | 198.660 |
| Cal | Floor: 49.635 Place: 1 | Vault: 49.435 R2 Total: 99.070 Place: 3 | Bars: 49.640 R3 Total: 148.710 Place: 3 | Beam: 49.630 | 198.340 |
| LSU | Beam: 49.530 Place: 3 | Floor: 49.725 R2 Total: 99.255 Place: 1 | Vault: 49.510 R3 Total: 148.765 Place: 2 | Bars: 49.570 | 198.335 |
| Florida | Bars: 49.425 Place: 4 | Beam: 49.530 R2 Total: 98.955 Place: 4 | Floor: 49.565 R3 Total: 148.520 Place: 4 | Vault: 49.485 | 198.005 |
Florida’s chances are… not great, at least by the numbers. But as Raisman said, it all comes down to who has it all together and can hit when it counts. Can that be the Gators? We’re about to find out.
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Join me tomorrow at 4:30pm for Session I and 9pm for Session II featuring the Gators – I’ll be liveblogging both sessions here for all of you! Hopefully I’ll be back for Four on the Floor on Saturday as well, but only if the Gators qualify.
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