Coming into the National Semifinals, Florida Gymnastics had to feel good about their grouping to make it to the Team Final. The Gators were paired with Oklahoma, Missouri, and Alabama, the latter of the two the Gators beat head-to-head earlier this season.
And two rotations into the meet the Gators seemed poised to cruise into the finals as Florida had built a 0.3 lead on the Tigers as Florida headed into vault.
But one bad rotation has ended the season for the Gators as Florida was unable to find the landing on vault and scored 49.0750 on the apparatuses to watch their lead evaporate and go into the final rotation behind.
Florida scored 49.4750 on uneven bars to close out the meet, the highest of anyone in Semifinals 1, but Missouri powered through with a meet-high 49.5000 on beam to claim the second spot ahead of Florida with final scores of 197.3000 to 197.2000.
Oklahoma, UCLA, and Utah will join Missouri in the Team Final on Saturday.
Softball drops opener to Alabama
Much like gymnastics, one bad inning doomed Florida Softball before ever getting a bat in their hands.
Florida gave up seven runs in the first inning and Keagan Rothrock was chased before getting out of the first inning.
Florida's biggest Achilles heel, infield fielding, was front and center of the seven-run inning as only two of those runs were earned.
Florida kept trying to claw back and had a chance in the bottom of the 7th. The Gators brought it back to 7-4, had two runners on, and freshman star Taylor Shumaker at the plate. She flew out and Alabama took the opener.
The two will be back at it on Friday at 6 PM.
Rueben Chinyelu to go through the NBA Draft process
Much like Alex Condon, Rueben Chinyelu has announced he will go through the NBA Draft process with the possibility of returning. Chinyelu made the announcement on his Instagram page.
Unlike Condon, mock drafts don't have Chinyelu on the radar, so it would be surprising if he were to stay in the draft.