University of Florida Women Gymnastics: Dynasty, Dynasty!

By Jimbo Brown

Coach Faehn Giving Some Pointers To A Young Athlete

Athlete Talk normally supply its readers with articles about the more traditional sports; football, basketball, track & field, etc. So today we wanted to show some love to the University of Florida Women’s gymnastics team. The team is being coached by a great women that believes in talent, persistence and talent. Coach Rhonda Faehn has been the coach for the past 13 years and has brought nothing but success to the university. During her time UF has won 4 sec titles, 10 NCAA regional titles, 10 super six appearances and 3 back to back to back national titles. The only other sports program to win three consecutive national titles is UF men’s track & field team. The women’s team has tons of talent on it.

2015 NCAA Gymnastics Champions

On every team championship team there are individuals that the underclassmen look up to and those two are Kytra Hunter and Bridget Sloans. These two set the tone for the other athletes on the team, especially Hunter. Hunter is a 15-time All American and is a 3x NCAA champion. Like most teams, the Gators had an up and down regular season. Through the good and bad times the whole roster delivered at clutch moments. For example, Bridgette Gaquatto’s career-best-tying floor routine gave UF a share of the 2014 title. This year freshman Alex McMurty came through and delivered the 3^rd consecutive national title by putting up a career best 9.95 to close UF’s bar rotation. Three freshman competed with the team for the national title, this establishes a good foundation for the slight rebuild Coach Faehn has to do.

Losing Hunter and fellow seniors Rachel Spicer, Jamie Shisler and Kierten Wang would be devastating for most teams. These seniors have contributed to the team in so many ways. The squad is already returning 9 people from their national championship team. 7 of the 9 actually competed this past weekend. The incoming freshmen will have plenty of leadership to follow because the retuning athletes have never experience a season that didn’t end with a national title. Freshman Kennedy Baker is the only African American on the team right now and she had a very good beginning to her career. The Gators have a bright future ahead of them. To be successful you have to emulate the greats.