FloGymnastics spoke on the phone Friday with Florida Gator’s head coach Jenny Rowland about regionals at Penn State this weekend and her outlook on the rest of the 2018 postseason. The Gators finished third at the SEC Championships, and they swept the team vault, bars, and beam titles.

Check out the conversation below.

FloGymnastics: So, tell me about SECs.

Coach Rowland: SECs is one of the best meets of the year. It’s a competition that this team thrives on. You have your greatest and best nemeses—and friends because, you know, all the athletes are best friends all across the country. Our conference actually had all of the teams stay in one hotel.

Oh wow, that sounds fun!

Yeah, so all of the athletes were really excited they got to hang out with each other. Once the competition starts, it’s definitely game on. This team was definitely pumped. They were prepared mentally and physically—they were ready to go. We had a really solid day of training. We had really good energy, just very efficient and felt really good going into competition day.

How Florida did on bars:

The first event started off strong . . . definitely paying a little closer attention to details. Our routines were a lot stronger than they'd been leading up to the competition. We had some really good, stuck landings, just executed, performed, and had a solid first rotation.

On beam:

We went to beam and it was just one routine after another, it was just building, building, building. You could tell the confidence level was rising. Beam was stellar, I’d like to say… (laughs) we really had a great performance.

What I would say, and I say it a lot, but it was a normal performance for this team. We talk about being normal a lot, and when we take what we do in the gym and put it out on the competition floor, they are fabulous. So being normal is fabulous and I was very pleased to see that carry over—especially at a competition on a stage at that level. The team took away a lot of confidence from that.

My comment before every beam turn was, "Hey, you want this bad, don’t you?" and I can tell in their eyes that they do, and I say, "Okay, if you want this so badly, just be normal."

Then Alyssa Bauman, before she went—I still get chills—before she went, she said, "Jenny, I got you. I got the team, don’t worry," and I was like, "Okay! Let’s see how this goes!"

Clearly, Rowland didn’t have to worry, because Bauman posted her highest career beam score of 9.975 to win the event title.

On floor:

So, moving into floor, yep everybody was hyped, pumped, excited like, "Let’s go, we got bars and beam out of the way!"

Rowland tells us that, during the first event, freshman Megan Skaggs tweaked her ankle on her first pass, leading to a missed routine. After that, senior Alex McMurtry also had an uncharacteristic fall on the event. 

I think that kind of shook—rattled—the rest of the lineup. That was an unfortunate incident. This team has an unlimited amount of confidence in Alex McMurtry, and [Alex] said, “I wasn't normal. I let a little bit of doubt creep in,” and she went just a little bit harder than she normally does.

That was weird. She’s usually so relaxed!

Absolutely. Most athletes, you can’t be any harder on them than they are on themselves, and she definitely is one of those athletes that really can do a great job at beating herself up.

The Gators were able to regroup and end on a solid routine.

Rachel Slocum was still working on a new first pass, and kinda rushed that first pass and landed a little short, but we finished off our last two routines very well. At the end of that rotation, we rallied together and just expressed to the team that this competition is not over. There were already some unusual occurrences going on, but you never know what’s going to happen in gymnastics. The meet’s not over until that last person finishes her routine.

And the Gators did rally. The vault lineup was able to rack up a 49.4 to tie for the win. Florida won vault, bars, and beam SEC titles. Rowland says the event wins gives the Gators confidence for regionals.

We finished off a really solid vault rotation, and looking back, reflecting on winning three out of four events that night, this team took away a lot of confidence. We learned a lot from our mistakes; we learned that: "Hey, we got this."

So looking forward, does the misstep on floor concern you at all? How are you working in practice to recover from that and making sure the girls aren't thinking about that going into the rest of the season?

There is not a yellow flag going up in my mind, not even close to a red flag. It was an unfortunate incident, in my mind, but if you dwell on it, enforce or encourage it, it’s just going to become a problem.

It's just something that doesn't happen—especially to Alex. She is very limited in her training, but when she does, it's just working in the moment. And that’s just something we are emphasizing and encouraging a little bit more in the gym: to work in the moment, to not think about anything from before and also not to get ahead of yourself.

Rowland tells us that even if Skaggs is not fully recovered from the ankle injury, the team has a depth that they haven't seen in the last few years. 

We have three athletes that are fully capable of stepping in and doing a fabulous job. They all have competed at some point this season, so it's not like it will be a brand-new lineup for anybody. For the most part, this team has the confidence in everybody and anybody doing their job.

You sound very confident. You know they say the best gymnasts have the shortest memory. 

(laughs) Absolutely!

So would you say that's kind of your attack plan, just living in the moment and not thinking about what's to come?

Absolutely, most definitely… You know, we discuss a lot about what's going on with the team, and I think that's what makes us so unique and so strong. I've never worked with a team so tight, so close-knit, so in-tune with each other and their needs. It's an amazing group of young women. It's a really strong bond. 

I've got some amazing leaders across the board, not just seniors but freshmen, sophomores, juniors . . . across the board, so really, that's helpful. The experience of the upperclassmen helping the underclassmen, yes, but also the desire, the passion from everybody including the freshman, trying to improve and not make the same mistakes and really just being in the now. 

So do you think it's just the mind game or is there a specific event that will be the biggest factor for you moving forward?

I think our mental game is not to beat our hardest competitors, which is ourselves. If they can go in and truly just be normal, and not try too hard. Talking with this freshman class, they don’t want to let their team down, and that emotion is something they’ve never experienced before. And when you care about your teammates so much, those emotions start creeping in, the doubt starts creeping in, and I think that’s where this team has gotten into their own heads—they don’t want to let anybody down.

You've got a strong group of upperclassmen who, I'm sure, want to finish strong. Especially Alex McMurty.

Alex is a very unique and special athlete. Her drive, her will, her passion to help everybody else first before herself . . . she really sets herself apart. She is just so very humble and just really, really wants to do her part for the team and if that’s helping someone else out first, that’s what she’s willing to do. Her goal for this year was definitely to win a national championship, but her individual goal was to help everybody else achieve what they wanted to achieve, and if she could help them in any way, that’s what she wanted to contribute.

What are you telling the girls as they head toward regionals and nationals?

There are only so many things that we can control and if we can control what we do, how we train, how we do things outside of the gym, taking care of ourselves, sleeping, all that good stuff. We can’t control scores. We can’t control [the other team’s] performances. If we can look back and say we did everything we could, then it’s going to be a very successful year.

Any thoughts on heading to Penn State for regionals?

I’m quite excited to head to Penn State, and it’s funny, Amelia Hundley has had a little vibe going "fun times, good vibes," and that’s kind of been the motto this whole season. She is just a ray of sunshine and positivity, and I said, "Meels, do you know where we’re going for regionals? Happy Valley! How perfect is that?" and she had no idea, but really, if you can take anything and make it a positive, it’s going to be a positive.

Okay, so aside from yourselves, who is your biggest competition looking toward regionals?

Really excited to see Arizona State. I was a Sun Devil myself. I did not graduate from ASU . . . long story short: I was on a full scholarship there, medicalled, then left my scholarship to go finish school closer to home. But ASU still has a special place in my heart, so really excited to see them on track. That program has really just been building up, and they’re going to be sharp and hopefully making their way back to nationals.

And definitely meeting Washington, Elise has done a really fabulous job with that program. They just have been a really consistent team and again, will be ready to make their appearance at NCAAs as well.

So, if everyone does there job, if everybody hits and you have the meet of your season, is it in reach? Could it happen for you this year—a national championship win? 

I believe and I have no doubt that it can definitely happen. That's something we've talked about from day one. It's gymnastics, it's unpredictable—it's sport. And that's the awesome and crazy part about athletics in general. But the talent, the work ethic, the desire . . . this team has what it takes. They're definitely working to maximize everything that they're able to control. This season has been full of highs and lows and the lows have made this team stronger. They definitely rise to the occasion. This weekend gave us a lot of confidence and they just kind of realized, "Hey, we can do this."