2025 Florida Potential Lineups

Florida is always in the mix for the national championship and always has the talent to make it happen, but 2025 will mark a decade since the Gators actually won one. Injuries to star elites make it tempting to underrate the Gators, but don’t get too carried away: This team lost zero routines from its postseason lineups and gains plenty, with a superstar transfer joining a useful freshman class.

2024 Rewind

No. 4 overall | No. 4 at SECs | No. 4 in regular season | NCAA team finals

In the Jenny Rowland era, Florida has qualified to the national final every year but one—but has never won. The Gators will regret their national final performance from a year ago; they absolutely had what it took to beat LSU in theory and instead turned in one of their worst showings of the season. SECs was a meet to forget, too. 

Losses & Gains

Returning	In
Fifth-Years Ellie Lazzari Victoria Nguyen Seniors Sloane Blakely Bri Edwards Riley McCusker Leanne Wong Juniors Lori Brubach Sophomores Alyssa Arana Kaylee Bluffstone Kayla DiCello Gabby Disidore Skylar Draser Danie Ferris Anya Pilgrim	Freshmen Skye Blakely Lily Bruce Taylor Clark Transfers Selena Harris-Miranda (UCLA)
	Out
	Graduated Chloi Clark (VT, FX) Michala Magee Payton Richards (AA) Retired Morgan Hurd
Injury Update
Skye Blakely and Kayla DiCello both sustained Achilles injuries during the 2024 elite summer season and will likely be limited, if not totally absent, this year.

Fresh Faces

Selena Harris-Miranda is the headliner here: She could easily slot into the all-around and improve every Gator lineup. Don’t neglect the freshmen, though; even if Skye Blakely ultimately redshirts, Taylor Clark is a major leg event talent and Lily Bruce is a former five-star recruit on the comeback trail after a senior year injury.

Apparatus Deep Dive

Vault

2024 Event Ranking: No. 3 | NQS: 49.485 | Average: 49.402

Event Overview: Florida has a lot of great vaults but sometimes struggles to string its best landings together in a single meet, especially under pressure. The best case scenario for this event is that Harris-Miranda provides stability early and that by midseason, Florida has settled on a group of six who can consistently avoid major landing errors.

Locks: Selena Harris-Miranda, Anya Pilgrim, Leanne Wong Harris-Miranda should slot in immediately at the back end of this lineup, if not into the anchor position. Wong and Pilgrim are staples and weekly stick threats.

Contenders: Sloane Blakely, Taylor Clark, Skylar Draser, Danie Ferris. Ellie Lazzari, Victoria Nguyen This crew mostly consists of returning but slightly less consistent 10.0 SV vaults. Ferris is perhaps the frontrunner: It took her a few weeks to find her feet at the beginning of her rookie season, but she settled in nicely and looks even stronger in training. Freshman Taylor Clark has a beauty of a front handspring pike half that will hopefully be in rotation.

Wildcards: Kaylee Bluffstone, Lily Bruce, Bri Edwards Edwards’ Yurchenko full is a backup option that Florida’s vault coaches have long valued, and she’s likely to see lineup time in the first half of the season once again. Bluffstone’s Yurchenko one and a half hasn’t yet seen the light of day in Gainesville, but it was solid during her level 10 career. Bruce may or may not be in her best vault shape this year, but she has a level 10 high score of 9.975.

Bars

2024 Event Ranking: No. 10 | NQS: 49.425 | Average: 49.364

Event Overview: Bars was Florida’s weak spot last year, with only two routines that ever scored 9.950 or higher. Finding higher peak scores will be the key.

Locks: Selena Harris-Miranda, Anya Pilgrim, Leanne Wong These three are likely all-arounders, but their consistency and score ceiling will be particularly key on bars. Pilgrim might be able to refine some details and spend more time around 9.950 in her sophomore season. If Wong’s fatigue after a long elite season means she doesn’t compete in the all-around weekly, expect bars to be the event she prioritizes because it is where she’s most needed.

Contenders: Alyssa Arana, Sloane Blakely, Lily Bruce, Gabby Disidore, Skylar Draser, Ellie Lazzari, Riley McCusker, Victoria Nguyen There are two groups here. Blakely, Disidore, Draser, Lazzari, and Nguyen are returners who are reliable options but who don’t get over 9.900 quite as often. The others are less certain prospects who might be able to score higher. Arana’s single bars outing in 2024 didn’t go so well, but she has truly beautiful technique on this event and warrants a second chance. McCusker is a fan favorite and another superior technician who has been plagued by injuries but who looks promising in training while freshman Bruce has posted lots of bars this year and looks a competitive with a Ray-based routine.

Wildcards: Skye Blakely, Kayla DiCello, Danie Ferris The Achilles-less contingent consisting of the younger Blakely sister and world all-around medalist DiCello have both been posting lots of bars this preseason, and their recovery timelines might allow them to threaten for this lineup by the end of the year. Ferris hasn’t shown a lot of bars so far in college, but she was great on this event in level 10.

Beam

2024 Event Ranking: No. 3 | NQS: 49.530 | Average: 49.464

Event Overview: With six available athletes with a 2024 NQS of 9.900 or better, beam might be Florida’s most comfortable event in 2025. There might be some surprises here, but if all we see on this event is the same faces doing the same routines, that would be just fine.

Locks: Selena Harris-Miranda, Leanne Wong There’s not a lot separating these two from the rest of a very strong, consistent beam lineup, but they produce their very best routines just a little more often.

Contenders: Sloane Blakely, Skylar Draser, Ellie Lazzari, Victoria Nguyen, Anya Pilgrim These five joined Wong in Florida’s regular beam lineup in 2024, and the Gators will be perfectly happy to use any of them again. Blakely and Draser are very slightly more consistent while the other three have slightly higher peaks. It’s tough to pick the odd woman out among this group.

Wildcards: Alyssa Arana, Kaylee Bluffstone, Lori Brubach, Lily Bruce, Riley McCusker Arana did just one routine on beam in 2024 and crushed it, delivering a 9.925. McCusker also has a history of success of this event, and while she might still be a bit more inconsistent than the main lineup contenders, her peak can be worth the risk. Bluffstone and Brubach have been surprise presences in beam training clips this year.

Floor

2024 Event Ranking: No. 9 | NQS: 49.565 | Average: 49.441

Event Overview: Florida was still good on floor in 2024, but it wasn’t great as often as it needed to be. Landing issues continued to plague the Gators to the very end of the season. It also took a long time to settle on the final top six last year, which means this event is wide open.

Locks: Selena Harris-Miranda, Anya Pilgrim, Leanne Wong Pilgrim’s NQS is more comparable with the contenders group than with the other two locks, but she earns her place here by joining Wong as the only returning Gators to earn a 10.0 on floor last year.

Contenders: Sloane Blakely, Taylor Clark, Victoria Nguyen The fact that this category is so small speaks to how many low-confidence options Florida has available. Blakely and Nguyen are solid NQS returners whose spots could be threatened if anyone else gets more consistent in 2025 while Clark was a machine in level 10 and has been looking exceptional so far in Gainesville.

Wildcards: Kaylee Bluffstone, Lori Brubach, Lily Bruce, Gabby Disidore, Skylar Draser, Danie Ferris, Ellie Lazzari This group is mostly athletes who were part-time contributors to the floor lineup last year. Lily Bruce’s double layout has been looking good in training while previous bars specialist Gabby Disidore has a very pretty double front in her back pocket.

Records Watch

Team: 198.775 | AA: 39.900 | VT: 49.725/10.000 | UB: 49.800/10.000 | BB: 49.750/10.000 | FX: 49.875/10.000

Most of these team records have been set or tied within the last few years and are at least plausible this year on a particularly happy night in the O’Dome. Wong’s all-around personal best of 39.875, which she’s achieved twice, is just a quarter-tenth short of Trinity Thomas’ all-around program record.

The Big Picture

Florida has the luxury of entering 2025 with no lineup holes to fill and lots of exciting new routines, including from one of the country’s top all-arounders. Fixing last year’s weaknesses will take more than just positive routine balance, though. It’ll take consistent precision that last year’s Gators struggled to achieve. Even with some high-profile injuries, there’s no theoretical reason why this team shouldn’t be in the mix for the national title if it tightens up those details. Look for the Gators to recover from their inevitable early season erraticness quicker than they did last year if you’re hoping for a better result.

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Article by Rebecca Scally