{"id":187675,"date":"2026-03-11T20:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T20:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/187675\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T20:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T20:09:08","slug":"no-3-florida-closes-regular-season-friday-at-no-22-kentucky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/187675\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 3 Florida Closes Regular Season Friday at No. 22 Kentucky"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>GAINESVILLE, Fla. \u2014 No. 3 Florida (11-2, 5-2 SEC) and No. 22 Kentucky (1-9-1, 1-5-1 SEC) gymnastics close the 2026 regular season Friday night in the Historic Memorial Coliseum, marking the second consecutive year the programs have ended their regular-season schedules against one another. It is also the fourth straight season the two teams meet to close Southeastern Conference regular-season action, continuing a long-standing rivalry that spans 100 previous meetings.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nFriday&#8217;s meet will be Florida&#8217;s first appearance in Historic Memorial Coliseum since the venue reopened on April 26, 2025. The Gators&#8217; most recent trip to Lexington came in 2024, when the dual was held in Rupp Arena. That matchup produced one of the most notable meets in NCAA gymnastics history, as it is among the 12 meets in NCAA history in which both teams posted totals of 198 or higher. Florida edged Kentucky 198.225\u2013198.10, with the 0.125 margin standing as the narrowest in the all-time series between the programs.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nHow to Follow the Gators:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Nation&#8217;s Top Score Powers Gators Past No. 2 LSU<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nIn a meet worthy of the nation&#8217;s top billing, <a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/news\/2026\/3\/8\/gymnastics-nations-top-score-powers-gators-past-no-2-lsu-tigers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">No. 4 Florida delivered the country&#8217;s highest score of the season March 8 to edge No. 2 LSU in a showdown between collegiate gymnastics&#8217; elite<\/a>.<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nBacked by a roaring sellout crowd of 9,229 inside the Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O&#8217;Connell Center, the Gators produced the nation&#8217;s best 2026 team total of 198.45 to edge LSU, which posted the nation&#8217;s top road score with a 198.325.<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nThe teams traded the advantage throughout a tightly contested meet that matched the weekend&#8217;s lofty expectations. Florida and LSU were tied after the opening rotation before the Tigers edged ahead by 0.075 at the midway point. The Gators reclaimed momentum in the third rotation, carrying the slimmest of leads &#8211; 0.025 &#8211; into the finale.<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nFlorida sealed the victory in dramatic fashion on floor exercise, delivering the nation&#8217;s second-highest floor total of the season (49.75) while LSU also recorded its season-high balance beam score in the final rotation.<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nHigh team totals came with equally impressive individual performances. Each apparatus title was claimed with a perfect or near-perfect mark, and the meet&#8217;s five all-around competitors produced the top collection of all-around scores recorded in a single meet this season, with totals ranging from 39.85 to 39.65.<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nLSU at UF Event Winners<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nVault:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Kailin Chio, LSU, Amari Drayton, LSU, Kaliya Lincoln, LSU\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 9.975<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nBars: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/womens-gymnastics\/roster\/skye-blakely\/17851\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"17851\" target=\"_blank\">Skye Blakely<\/a>, UF and Konner McClain, LSU\u00a0 9.975<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nBeam:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/womens-gymnastics\/roster\/selena-harris-miranda\/17860\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"17860\" target=\"_blank\">Selena Harris-Miranda<\/a>, UF 10.0<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nFloor:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/womens-gymnastics\/roster\/skye-blakely\/17851\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"17851\" target=\"_blank\">Skye Blakely<\/a>, UF, eMaje Frazier, UF, Kaliya Lincoln, LSU\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 9.975<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nAll-Around: <a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/womens-gymnastics\/roster\/selena-harris-miranda\/17860\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"17860\" target=\"_blank\">Selena Harris-Miranda<\/a>, UF\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 39.85<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nWeekly Honors for <a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/womens-gymnastics\/roster\/selena-harris-miranda\/17860\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"17860\" target=\"_blank\">Selena Harris-Miranda<\/a>:<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nAfter posting the nation&#8217;s all-around high versus No. 2 LSU, which included a 10.0 on beam, <a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/womens-gymnastics\/roster\/selena-harris-miranda\/17860\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"17860\" target=\"_blank\">Selena Harris-Miranda<\/a> earned double weekly honors:&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<br \/>\nFour Florida All-Arounders Lead Nation&#8217;s Deepest All-Around Field:<br \/>\nIn the March 8 LSU at Florida dual, five competed as all-arounders. Those five produced the top collection of all-around scores recorded in a single meet this season, with totals ranging from 39.85 to 39.65.<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<br \/>\nFlorida is part of a select group this season alongside Air Force (2x), UCLA and Iowa (2x) as the nation&#8217;s only teams to feature four all-arounders in a single meet.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nFlorida became the latest addition to this group March 8 versus No. 2 LSU, while the other three teams each competed four all-arounders in January.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nIt was the first time in 2026 Florida had four all-around competitors. Florida had no all-arounders in three 2026 meets, marking the first time since the 2013 season no Gators competed as all-arounders.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nFlorida twice competed four in all-around in 2025. There were eight 2024 meets with four or more all-arounders, including five in the NCAA Regional Second Round. The five was the most for the Gators since the 2009 season.<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GAINESVILLE, Fla. \u2014 No. 3 Florida (11-2, 5-2 SEC) and No. 22 Kentucky (1-9-1, 1-5-1 SEC) gymnastics close&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-187675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}