The Swamp, known to most as Gainesville, Florida, will host the NCAA’s Southeast Regionals competition this Saturday, April 6th at 6pm.

The Gainesville Regional competition includes No. 1 Florida, No. T12 Auburn and Minnesota, No. 24 Maryland, Bridgeport, and Pittsburgh. In addition to the six teams, five individual all-around competitors, and four event specialists (one per event) will be thrown in the mix.

These teams will duke it out over six rotations, and the top two teams and top two all-around competitors (who aren’t on a progressing team) will move on to the prestigious NCAA Championship in Los Angeles, California.

Florida is coming off an impressive SEC title win with a score of 198.0, and UF is the only school to score multiple 198’s this season. The Gators have won a total of 12 NCAA regional titles and have attended 30 out of 31 NCAA Championships. However, the Gators have never won a National title. Could this be their year?

Florida head coach Rhonda Faehn says, “The focus of course is going to be doing what we've done all year long. Taking it one step at a time. Starting out on vault just being aggressive, hitting those landings, and carrying that momentum through to the rest of the meet."

SEC Freshman of the year, Bridget Sloan, thinks the regional competition will be less stressful since the Gators are familiar with the equipment. “I definitely do feel a lot more comfortable. I almost think it will be like a home meet, and it'll be awesome to get back out there and have a home crowd.”

Sloan, who has also collected a lavish five all around wins this season, said she has a good feeling about Regionals. "I know it'll be a good one! We have been working our butts off since the beginning of the season, and we have really come a long way, and the chemistry is building. Its even getting better and better each day.”

The total team scores from this weekend’s regional competition will be added to the teams regional qualifying score to determine the rotation schedule for the National championship.

Faehn is just simply tired of the wait. "Obviously we want it here today, right now. The hardest part coming up to this is the waiting time, because we were so pumped after SEC’s."

The Gators have been knocking on the National Championship door for a while now and coach Faehn explained the game plan. "When it comes down to that national championship, its on that final night, everything has to come together just exactly so. We are working toward that and we just keep focusing on one thing at a time. I think we will put ourselves in a good position.”


Florida’s Rotation Schedule is as follows:

• Vault
• Bye
• Bars
• Beam
• Bye
• Floor