Rhonda Faehn was fantastic, and I was upset when she left UF for USAG. Definitely a legend in Gators gymnastics, and if she hadn't gotten swept up in this Nassar scandal, I'd have expected something in the O'Dome to be named after her (like perhaps the gymnastics training facility).
BUT:
Under Faehn, the Gators missed the Super Six three times (2003, 2005, 2011)
They didn't win their Regional three times (2003, 2004, 2011)
They didn't win the SEC eight times (2003-2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2014-2015; and those last two teams won the National Championship)
Let's face it, 2012-2015 spoiled a lot of Gators fans. It wasn't like Faehn's teams didn't stumble at times.
Under Rowland, starting 2016:
Super Six: 2016, 2017, 2018
Regional Championship: 2016, 2017, 2018
SEC Championship Meet title: 2016
SEC Regular-Season Championship (award began 2018): 2019
National Finishes: 2016 -4th, 2017 - 3rd, 2018- 3rd - and let me tell you, in 2018, Kennedy Baker had been in the lineup, or if Alex McMurtry didn't have an uncharacteristic stumble on her vault, UF would have been 2nd or even won it all. It was that close.
That last bullet point referenced in Rhonda's record isn't valid anymore. Top team scores in school history:
Uneven Bars: 49.725 2019
Balance Beam: 49.675 2019
Floor Exercise: 49.725 2019
I don't consider this a drop off by any means. One night in Corvallis is not indicative of what Rowland has done and continues to do. Jenny has had two #1 recruiting classes in the past two years and if the two commits for this year sign their LOIs this spring, she's going to have an incredible pair of ladies coming into the program next year. Both of them are Elites and are medal winners internationally.
Just a reminder, it was Rhonda Faehn herself who picked her replacement. She gave Jeremy Foley Rowland's name and convinced Jenny to go for the job.
I hope the program remains one of the elite. I know it's not easy to follow a legend.
Rhonda Faehn's record at UF.
- Claimed team's first three NCAA Championships (2013, 2014, 2015)
- Ten top-five NCAA Championship finishes
- Won four (2007, 2010, 2012 and 2013) Southeastern Conference team titles
- Registered 10 NCAA Region team titles
- Established the top-10 team scores in school history and each team event record
I would have to say the recruiting under Jenny Rowland has been great. The Gators Gymnastics team has finished 3rd, 3rd, and 4th nationally under Jenny.
No, they're not slipping under her leadership.
Oliver Barry, CRS, GRI
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It's true that Alyssa Baumann includes a very difficult skill called an Onodi, Rachel Gowey does a triple series that is amazing, difficult, and extremely risky, and Trinity Thomas does one acrobatic series one-handed where most gymnasts use two hands. They are high-risk routines, no doubt. The gymnasts who fell Saturday night were Megan Skaggs, who doesn't have quite as much difficulty in her routine, and Alicia Boren, who lost her balance on an element that actually was after the most difficult part of her routine. You have to remember, this is a 4" wide thing they're doing all this craziness on, and it just takes a landing a few centimeters off before you're fighting to stay on
The Gymnastics booster club was able to get some individual Q&As with Coach Rowland and the assistant coaches this year, which was great. One of the questions that came up was about difficulty in routines, and in the Q&A with Adrian Burde, he said they often have to tell the gymnasts that some elements will have to get edited out, as they are going for a balance of difficulty and consistency with each routine. He said it's hard to convince them at first, but then they see the logic, especially since NCAA scoring is so different from Olympic/Elite.
People always forget that even the greatest NCAA gymnasts of all time will fall. I remember Bridget Sloan falling off the beam, her favorite event and one she hadn't fallen off of all year, the first night at Nationals in 2014, eradicating her chances at competing for the All-Around title. I remember Kytra Hunter "going over" on a handstand during the uneven bars at SECs in 2013. I also remember that this team under Jenny Rowland ended third at Nationals last year - higher than anyone would have expected, considering the inconsistent year they had, and competing without Kennedy Baker, who got injured at the last regular season meet. I remember that team was possibly a Kennedy Baker away from actually winning it, if she'd been there to compete.
I am not a gymnastics expert and I have not been able to watch that many matches this year. However, I have noticed that on the balance beam, we seem to be doing high risk/return routines. I am not sure if we would not have been better off with some slightly scaled down routines. It seems to me that the extra points gained may not be worth falling off of the beam.
Jerry
I respectfully reply here: nope.
I'm a very committed gymnastics fan, and I've watched this team all season - every single meet save Arkansas, which wasn't broadcast (and I wasn't going to Fayetteville to see). Friday was a "big stage" night and they absolutely killed it on beam, plus had extremely good scores on floor and bars as they have all season. On Saturday, they outscored themselves on vault (one of their best team vault scores all year), and were not as crisp on bars and floor (49.425 on each apparatus; anyone will tell you a team scoring 49.4 on each event is a championship-caliber team). Unfortunately, after Amelia Hundley's respectable 9.775 on beam (a little low for her; s/b around 9.8 - 9.85), Rachel Gowey and Alicia Boren both fell off the beam, so UF had to count a score. Once that happened, the pressure was ratcheted up big-time on the remaining beam performers to not stumble. They didn't, but the pressure led to lower scores all around, so right out of the gate, UF was 1.5 points behind their normal "pace" for a meet. Throughout the season, she's done all the right things: such as resting gymnasts here and there during the season to avoid injury or wearing them out (Elite and Level 10 gymnasts only compete 4 or 5 times a year; NCAA gymnasts compete in 9-15 meets in a season less than four months long). Two of the three assistants (Adrian Burde and Jeremy Miranda) were here with Faehn, only Owen Field is new. There is nothing that happened on Saturday that was on account of a lack of training, discipline, or proper encouragement from the training staff. This team has been stronger than any Faehn team I can recall on beam, which is the least forgiving of the apparatus. Some times the athletes can't execute. It just happens.
Just a reminder; even Rhonda Faehn missed the Super Six in 2011 with an exceptionally talented team. The next year, that team lost to Alabama in the finals just by a hair before going on to three back-to-back national championships.
Another thing of note: this is the first year with a new format; if this had been the old format, nobody would be groaning that UF missed nationals, as they would have qualified to go to Dallas and compete to be included in the Super Six (final).
Gymnastics seems to be slipping a bit under Rowland. The ladies don't seem to do as well on the big stage.
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