Win at Utah

The Gators took home another victory Friday night against No. 7 Utah. Using the nation's second-highest score of 197.90, the team posted the fourth-highest score in school history.

Sophomore Alaina Johnson won the all-around, tying her career-high score of 39.675.

“I’m very happy with my performance and I’m just glad that I could go out there and do it for my team,” Johnson said.

Alaina Johnson performs during the floor exercise. By GatorZone.com

According to Head Coach Rhonda Faehn, Johnson is different from the other high-scoring athletes like freshman Kytra Hunter, and juniors Marissa King and Ashanee Dickerson.

While these girls are very powerful, Johnson’s “finesse and grace” make her stand apart, according to Faehn.

“Alaina is just an absolutely beautiful gymnast. On any given day she can challenge to win any title on any event for any meet,” Faehn said.

The meet started off rocky, though, when the Gators did not stick a single landing on vault.

According to Faehn, she was upset at the beginning of the meet because of the vault landings. However, she was proud when the team did not carry that over to the rest of the events.

Hunter had a mishap on bars when she missed the bar and fell on her back in the middle of her routine. She was lifted back onto the bar and finished her routine, but her score reflected her fall with a 9.250.

“It’s a common mistake, because that release move is one of the hardest on bars. She was just a little late,” Faehn said.

Despite the fall, the Gators still won bars with Dickerson and Johnson tied for first with a score of 9.950.

Florida continued its winning streak as they moved on to beam. King and Johnson tied for first with King earning a career-high score of 9.925. King also earned a career-high all-around score.

“It was really nice to see,” King said. “It’s nice to know hard work pays off.”

All of the gymnasts scored very well on the floor exercise.

According to King, the team had been posting lower scores on floor, and they had been working on bringing those scores up. Tonight they did.

“You could see tonight they had that rhythm,” Faehn said. “This is the first time really that we felt that everyone was just on target.”

King and Hunter both posted a 9.95 on floor, which is the highest score besides a perfect 10.

“We finally really put it all together on the floor,” Faehn said.