Missouri at Florida

Recap

The Big Storyline: Florida finally smashed through the 198 barrier at its annual Pink Meet, though judging inconsistencies and inaccuracies ultimately overshadowed the strength of the Gators’ performance. That aside, Florida’s stars continued to shine as Trinity Thomas, Leanne Wong, Sloane Blakely and Kayla DiCello all exceeded 39.500 in the all-around. 

Implications: Missouri continues to struggle on its signature event, beam, and drops to 16th nationally and seventh in the SEC. Florida regains its place as the penultimate team in the country, two tenths behind top-ranked Oklahoma. 

Records: Thomas earned her 28th all-around title, moving past alumna Bridget Sloan as the winningest Gator of all time. Freshman DiCello had the best meet of her young career, snagging her first perfect 10 and setting career highs on all four events and the all-around. 

Controversies: The scoring was so frequently and so brazenly wrong, it might be quicker to list which scores weren’t controversial. Florida gymnasts Trinity Thomas and Chloi Clark took to social media to address the judges’ errors. 

Preview

Current Rankings: No. 15 Missouri at No. 3 Florida

Why You Should Clear Space on Your DVR: Love them or hate them, the Gators are indisputably one of the best teams in the country, but they’re not untouchable. The Tigers have yet to hit all four events in a single meet this year, but their season high event scores are more than enough to challenge the Gators for the win. Given Missouri’s capacity to upset higher-ranked opponents, Florida can’t afford to get complacent against this squad.

You Can Fast Forward, but not Through This: Leanne Wong scored bookend 10s last week at Arkansas; can she do it two weeks in a row? With the exception of Helen Hu (who’s been reliably sublime), Missouri has struggled in recent weeks on its signature event, beam. It’ll need to fire on all cylinders if it wants to have any hope of taking down third-ranked Florida.