History
The University of Florida first fielded a women's varsity gymnastics team in the fall of 1973. Gymnastics was one of the first women's sports added at the University of Florida and achieved early success by winning the 1982 AIAW national championship. Since the NCAA assumed sponsorship for women's sports championships in 1982, Florida has advanced to the NCAA national championship tournament (top twelve teams nationally) thirty times, and has only failed to qualify for the national championship once since 1982. The Gators have advanced to the "Super Six" finals of the NCAA championship eighteen times. Florida has placed second in the NCAA national championship tournament twice, finishing as the runner-up in 1998 and 2012 and came in first in 2013.
Ernestine Weaver was the head coach of the Gators gymnastics program from 1980 to 1992, and she was responsible for much of the team's early success in SEC and NCAA competition. Under Weaver, the Gators won five SEC tournament championships, won the AIAW national championship in 1982, and appeared in thirteen consecutive NCAA national championship tournaments; Gators gymnasts won five AIAW and NCAA individual national championships. Judi Markell succeeded Weaver as head coach in 1993, and her teams qualified for nine NCAA national championship tournaments in ten seasons, including three Super Six appearances, and a second-place finish in 1998; Markell's Gators won three NCAA individual national championships.
The Gators have been coached by Rhonda Faehn since 2003, and have won four SEC tournament championships, and appeared in the NCAA national championship tournament ten consecutive times under Faehn, including seven Super Six appearances, a national runner-up performance in 2012 and a national championship performance in 2013. Freshman Kytra Hunter won the individual all-around national championship along with the vault at the 2012 NCAA national tournament while Bridge Sloan won the 2013 NCAA national All around championship as well as beam.
The Gators' major national rivals include the Georgia Gym Dogs of the University of Georgia and the Alabama Crimson Tide gymnastics team of the University of Alabama. Both Alabama and Georgia are fellow SEC members.
Read more about this topic: Florida Gators Women's Gymnastics
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