2024 was another year of “close, but no cigar” for Gator Gymnastics under Jenny Rowland, making it to Four on the Floor but ultimately coming in fourth. While it was definitely a year to be proud of, especially given that several expected Gators were absent or limited due to injury or Olympic pursuits, that national team title still eludes Rowland, and this season will mark 10 years since Florida’s last time at the top.
The question lingers… how long can you dance around the podium without climbing it before you are pushed out of position?
Certainly, we’ll expect them to remain in contention this season, although maybe not as strongly as we once would have hoped. If you had asked a Gators fan this time last year, they would have said 2025 would be the year – Skye Blakely and Kayla DiCello back from their Olympic attempts, Riley McCusker back from injury, Lily Bruce and Taylor Clark joining the squad? A recipe for a golden year, for certain.
But things have not exactly turned out as planned. Blakely and DiCello both tore their Achilles tendons in pursuit of their Paris dreams, just one day apart during Olympic Trials. Both have had six months to heal, but DiCello just had another surgery on her other leg in late December, and Blakely has only been seen training a few scarce landings. However, the Gators have also gained a few assets – UCLA transfer Selena Harris-Miranda should be a weekly AA threat, and recent commit Ly Bui has joined a year early. A former U.S. junior national team member, Bui will be a tremendous value-add, particularly on bars.
McCusker’s healing is maybe one thing that has gone to plan – she doesn’t just have bars under control now, but she’s upgraded her entire routine, both releases and dismount. She also looks confident enough to slot right back into the beam lineup.
There are still a few question marks – can some of the vets get past their hiccups and yips from last season, particularly on bars? Has Danie Ferris healed enough to meaningfully contribute on more than just vault? How will Harris-Miranda mesh with the culture at Florida? Let’s take it event by event and break down what to expect from the Gators this season, and the signs to look for to measure their progress.
Vault
2024 Postseason Lineup: Draser, Nguyen, Pilgrim, Ferris, Wong, Lazzari
Other Contributors: Blakely Sr., Edwards
Potential Additions: Harris-Miranda, Clark, Bui
Outside Chance: Disidore
Once again, 2025 should be the year of the Gator vault. It was one of the team’s best events in 2024, ranked No. 3 at the end of regular season, although there were some consistency issues. For much of the season, some of the Yurchenko 1.5s were a little too shaky to really benefit from having a full lineup of 10.0 start value vaults, but this year, they’re looking much stronger, especially Ellie Lazzari. There will be more options this year, though, with more Y1.5s coming in from Harris-Miranda and Bui and a spectacular front handspring pike half from freshman Taylor Clark. The two freshmen may rotate in and out to figure out who’s more consistent, or Bui may wait a few more weeks to get used to the college routine before she competes at all, since she only just arrived in Gainesville.
Victoria Nguyen is still having some trouble dialing in her landings, and Bri Edwards still can’t seem to stick her Yfull in competition, though I’ve seen her stick it many times in warmups. Expect the two of them to be on the outside looking in here, at least for the start of season. Ferris also did not compete vault at Hype Night in December – could have just been a precautionary hold out, but if she’s nursing something, she may also stay out of the lineup in early weeks. Gabby Disidore also had an interesting Hype Night showing: she competed a Yfull, but did a half turn hop on her landing, and associate head coach Adrian Burde was heard saying it will eventually be a Y1.5. In time for this season? Only time will tell.
Leanne Wong is the other wildcard I’d keep an eye on, and that may seem strange to say, as she’s often the team’s rock in consistency. But she’s had a long year – no summer break like her teammates had, but harder and more frequent training instead in an attempt to qualify to the Paris team. Rowland may rotate her out more often than we’re used to in order to keep her healthy for postseason, since that’s when her scores will be most important.
Skylar Draser and Anya Pilgrim feel like easy locks for this lineup after their performances last season. Draser proved herself in the leadoff spot many times, often setting the tone with a stick right off the top, and Pilgrim only scored below a 9.875 three times – one of which was at nationals with six judges.
2025 Lineup Prediction: Draser, Wong, Bui/Clark, Pilgrim, Harris-Miranda, Lazzari; alt Blakely, Nguyen, Ferris if healthy
In terms of watching vault progress over the course of the season, landings are not going to be dialed in the first meet. The Gators will be bouncy, they will overcook or undercook it just a little bit as they get a feel for competition again in the new year. What we want to see starting out is good amplitude – sizable height and distance proportional to each other, you don’t want just one and not the other. Body shape is also important. For most of these vaults, the Yurchenko 1.5s, their position is a layout, so think stretched from head to toe, legs glued together, as little leg or feet crossing as possible. For Wong and Clark, whose vaults are different but based on the same shape, we want to see them hit strong, clear pike positions in the air – think 90 degree angles – but keep their toes pointed and knees straight. If the mechanics are good to start with, the landing will come. If the mechanics are giving the athlete a tough time, the landing is always going to be a crapshoot.
Bars
2024 Postseason Lineup: Blakely Sr., Nguyen, Lazzari, Pilgrim, Draser, Wong
Other Contributors: Disidore
Potential Additions: McCusker, Harris-Miranda, Bui, Arana, Ferris, Bruce, Blakely Jr.
The biggest problem with bars last season was the veterans suddenly having consistency issues with skills they’ve been doing forever – in sports, we call this the yips. Several athletes were ill at the beginning of season, but the problem persisted even into postseason and jumped from veteran to veteran, as Sloane Blakely, Lazzari, and Nguyen were all affected throughout the year. Our best hope this season is that they’ve changed things up enough in the offseason, and now in the gym, that that won’t happen again. But if it does, there are more options waiting in the wings.
McCusker will almost certainly slot back into the lineup regularly, as will Harris-Miranda, and I think it would be a mistake not to let Alyssa Arana have another go after a tough first outing last year with a nasty fall. It’s also unclear why Disidore came out of the lineup last season in favor of Draser; they scored around the same and Disidore didn’t seem to be having any trouble or injury concerns, but they could have been kept under wraps.
I can’t say who I would necessarily take out – the six for postseason were a great six – but expecting those first three veterans to rotate more frequently feels like a safe bet. Nguyen is training a new release combination that is still looking a little messy, so it may not be ready for competition if that’s what she wants to throw this year. Lazzari has had some problems with inconsistency even before last season, and bars is not necessarily Blakely’s best event.
Bui seems the likeliest of the freshmen to contribute, as bars was a strong event for her in elite, though I do expect her to hold off for a week or two to start the season. Ferris showed a strong bars set at Hype Night, although maybe not strong enough to contend with the others listed here. And Lily Bruce and the younger Blakely are working their ways back from lower body injuries, so bars is the likeliest place they will start to contribute. The team would benefit greatly from at least one of them being ready by postseason.
2025 Lineup Prediction: Disidore, Bui, Harris-Miranda, Pilgrim, McCusker, Wong; alt Draser, Blakely Sr., Arana/Blakely Jr. if healthy
Measuring progress on bars is all about angles and flow. How vertical are the handstands? Are the pirouettes fully completed before the athlete keeps swinging? Are releases completed in the right body position at a good distance above the bar, and does momentum continue out of them? Are bar-to-bar transitions well-rotated and smoothly swung? It won’t all be perfect the first week, but again, the bones should be there already. If they can stick dismounts, even better, but that will come if the dismount is timed right and well-positioned in the air. If you’re worried about a gymnast hitting her head on the bar, or the dismount goes way far away from the bars, she’s mistimed letting go for the dismount.
Beam
2024 Postseason Lineup: Draser, Blakely Sr., Pilgrim, Nguyen, Wong, Lazzari
Other Contributors: Arana
Potential Additions: McCusker, Harris-Miranda, Clark, Bui, Bruce, Disidore, Brubach
Beam was the Gators’ best event last season statistically, but it didn’t come without its challenges. Consistency was not the team’s strong suit on any event last season, but they always seemed to find a way to pull it out in the end. This year, they’ll want to remedy that with a more consistent, confident six, and the solution to that may actually be more rotation, not less. If an athlete starts to have trouble with an element, rotating them out for a week until they feel more comfortable with it while another gymnast has an opportunity to compete feels like an overall net positive. Not every athlete will handle that the same way, so it may not be how Rowland chooses to handle things, but just some food for thought.
That said, I’d be surprised if last year’s six weren’t all at least in the mix. Draser and the elder Blakely would both make good leadoff choices for their consistency, Nguyen and Lazzari are both a little inconsistent but have gorgeous technique and high score ceilings, and Pilgrim and Wong are rocks you can count on. In terms of other contenders, McCusker really showed that she’s ready to slot back in at Hype Night, and Harris-Miranda had a good set as well. Clark really surprised with a strong beam set – she wasn’t exactly known for beam in Level 10 competition, so seeing a rather unorthodox set of skills and a calm confidence from her was really encouraging.
Bui and Bruce could also come in as contenders, although beam was never Bui’s strong suit in elite and Bruce is still recovering from surgery. Disidore and Brubach also showed beam at Hype Night, but both were full of bobbles and form breaks; they’d both have to make significant progress to compete with the rest of their teammates for time in this lineup. Arana’s form last year allowed her a chance to sub in for a meet, but a fall at Hype Night doesn’t bode well for her chances this year.
2025 Lineup Prediction: Blakely Sr., Nguyen, McCusker, Pilgrim, Wong, Harris-Miranda; alts Draser, Clark, Lazzari
Here in the early weeks of season, watch for steadiness and flow on beam: you want to see the athletes moving through their skills as though the beam were eight or twelve inches wide, not four. As I used to tell the gymnasts I coached, the beam can smell fear, so if an athlete isn’t confident in the skills in their routine, they will be off balance, and it will turn into a bobble. More experienced veterans can finesse some of those bobbles away or correct issues mid-air, but better not to have them in the first place. Hesitations between skills are also now deductible by the judges, so ideally, athletes are only putting skills into their competition routines that they are confident enough in to connect to choreography or other skills, with as little pause as possible. Technique will also be a telltale sign if an athlete is comfortable with their skills – if the split does not reach 180, they should be doing an easier split skill where there aren’t as many other factors preventing them from reaching that necessary angle.
Floor
2024 Postseason Lineup: Nguyen, Lazzari, Pilgrim, Blakely Sr., Ferris, Wong
Other Contributors: Draser, Brubach, Bluffstone
Potential Additions: Harris-Miranda, Clark, Bui, Disidore
Floor is where the team loses the most options from 2024, with Payton Richards graduated, Morgan Hurd now medically retired into a creative position with the team, and Kaylee Bluffstone recently injured and likely out for 2025 all rotating in during last season. Still, none of those were nationals routines, and the team is definitely adding some heavy hitters.
Nguyen and Lazzari’s routines are similar to last year – elegant with a touch of sass, each featuring a front double full. Pilgrim has both the double layout and a new full-in available to her, and if she competes both, she’d only need to do two passes in her routine as long as she did a punch front through to one of them. Senior Blakely has also found a full-in as her new E pass, and it looks much more comfortable than her double arabian has in years. Her routine should bring the house down as usual.
Ferris and Wong didn’t go full out at Hype Night – the former only doing a dance-through and the latter opting to skip her first pass – but both have double layouts available to them, and Wong has a whole bevy of other options should she need to shift away from a pass that’s so hard on her body. Draser and Brubach are also solid, reliable options for when folks may need resting.
The real showstopper additions here will be Harris-Miranda and Clark, who both have tons of power in tumbling and stellar performance quality. There’s no question both of these athletes will have the O-Dome on their feet week after week.
Bui should also be an option, but again, I expect her a few weeks down the road, and Disidore is also training a routine with a tucked double front that no one was expecting. It doesn’t quite look competition ready, but it would be fantastic to see that variety of tumbling in the Gator lineup.
2025 Lineup Prediction: Lazzari, Wong, Harris-Miranda, Clark, Blakely Sr., Pilgrim; alts Bui, Nguyen, Draser/Ferris if she’s healthy
The progression we want to measure over the course of the season on floor is control. How well are the gymnasts gauging their tumbling landings ahead of time and controlling them on contact? Does their front foot slide when taking a lunge out of a pass, or does it stay put? Are they precise with the rotations and positions of their dance elements, or do they bounce all over the place? All of that comes down to controlling the momentum that they build throughout the routine, both physically and mentally, and meting it out in appropriate doses.
Conclusion
I’d like to circle back to the question I originally asked – how long can the Gators stay competitive? For what it’s worth, I think the answer, in this case, is at least several more years. Florida has no shortage of strong commits, this year’s freshman class included. Even with the setbacks for the younger Blakely and DiCello, this team is putting together another strong campaign, and I think it will be among the top competitors again as usual.
Looking ahead, the program has what young student-athletes want: a chance at winning, a positive team culture, world-class coaches and facilities, a solid NIL track record, and academics to back it all up. But it’s that chance at winning piece that gets chipped away at bit by bit each year that they keep coming up short. It’s not something I’m concerned about in the immediate, but a trend to keep an eye on as the seasons come and go.
As this season begins, let’s cross our fingers, don our orange and blue, and hope that they make it a moot question altogether by taking it all. If they can, we’ll be right here covering it when they do.
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