Florida
With Oklahoma out of the mix, here’s how Florida gymnastics can finally win it all
Florida gymnastics left the Lone Star State back-to-back years with a sour taste. With the National Championship Saturday, can Florida finally win it this year?
Swampcast talks Florida football, basketball, gymnastics
The Sun’s Kevin Brockway and David Whitley are joined by Noah Ram of the Sun to discuss Florida football, basketball and gymnastics at NCAA Championships.
The roster is vastly different, but the Florida gymnastics team will head into the NCAA National Championship meet Saturday afternoon with the same intention.
Don’t play second fiddle.
Two years in a row, the Gators stomped into Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, looking to win the program’s first national title since 2015.
In 2022 and 2023, UF was swamped by Boomer Sooner.
But Oklahoma suffered a truly stunning third place finish Thursday night after a rough start on vault. OU failed to advance to Saturday’s Team Final.
Florida and Utah, though, took care of business. The Gators came in a close second to the Utes with a 197.8750 final score.
No. 4 UF will now face No. 2 LSU, No. 3 Cal and No. 5 Utah for the national title.
Here’s how the Gators can win their first title since 2015:
Florida gymnastics must perform at Regionals level
Throughout the 2024 season, the Gators pulled off a neat little trick, accomplished by no other team in the country.
Each week, from meet one to meet eight, Florida’s score improved. It began at a 197.10 in its opening meet win and jumped to 198.225 vs Kentucky on March 3.
That stretch crashed down to earth at SEC Championships where the Orange and Blue tallied a lackluster 197.300, fourth behind LSU, Kentucky and Alabama.
UF knew how to respond, though, and delivered two great showings in front of a home crowd.
A 197.925 in the Regional Semifinals on April 5, and a season-high 198.325 at Regional Final April 7.
Former U.S. Olympian John Roethlisberger will be calling the action Saturday on ABC. He said in a media availability earlier this week that Florida must perform like it’s in the O’Dome.
“They need to repeat their Regionals performance,” Roethlisberger said. “It’s going to be tight, and everyone needs to be at their best. Florida is one of them.”
What made UF’s score in the Regional Final so impressive is the versatility.
Its vault, bars, beam and floor score were all a 49.500 or higher. Roethlisberger was especially impressed with the play of Florida’s freshman.
Two of them, Skylar Draser and Anya Pilgrim, competed and each averaged a 9.90 or higher.
“Maybe they aren’t as frequently getting those 10s, but my gosh, to get those freshman contributing at that level right away,” Roethlisberger said. “They’ve done a remarkable job.”
Florida continued that balance Thursday night. The Gators scored a 49.450 or better on all rotations, capped off by a 49.500 on vault.
The top three vault scores in the later semifinal were courtesy of Florida — Leanne Wong (9.9375), Ellie Lazzari (9.9250) and Anya Pilgrim (9.9125).
Capitalize on mistakes around you
Florida did a solid job Thursday of ignoring the chaos around it.
As Oklahoma suffered three falls on vault that sent Dickies Arena into a frenzy, coach Jenny Rowland kept the Gators focused on their larger mission.
It paid off as UF rolled back OU and Alabama.
Now, the field is suddenly wide open. Three-time Olympic Gold Medalist Aly Raisman said on the ESPN2 broadcast that she doesn’t favor one team heading into Saturday.
Still, the Bayou Bengals enter Saturday as likely betting favorites. LSU was the nation’s only squad to top the 198 mark and feature Haleigh Bryant, the nation’s all-around champion.
Like with Oklahoma, Florida hopes LSU will stumble on vault. The Tigers score of 49.325 lags behind the Gators.
UF, though, must take its gymnastics up a notch on beam and floor, where LSU ranked first in the nation this season.
When the Gators beat the Tigers head to head February 23 at the O’Connell Center, they won on vault and beam. While LSU won on floor, Florida scored a season-best 49.700.
Those are the types of numbers that’ll need to be placed to toppled the Tigers.
No shame in second
While Florida’s chances have risen exponentially after Thursday’s results, a title is still far from a sure thing.
Raisman said that if Florida lands in second like its past two years, that’s something Gator Nation should be proud of.
“I always like to say winning second place,” Raisman said. “I think it’s really important to recognize the consistency and how impressive that is. It comes down to whatever team does what they do every day in the gym, which is much easier said than done.”
Fellow ESPN commentator John Roethlisberger continued and noted that coach Jenny Rowland has done her best coaching job at Florida this season.
This past offseason, the Gators saw Trinity Thomas graduate, Kayla DiCello and Skye Blakely take the year off for Olympic training, Riley McCusker miss the season due to injury, and Savannah Schoenherr transfer to LSU.
“I said this to Jenny, but this was the, ‘oh wait until next year, year,’” Roethlisberger said. “Nobody should be in the situation they’re in, if you’ve lost that much gymnastics.”
The Team Final begins Saturday at 4 p.m. on ABC.
Noah Ram covers Gainesville-area high school sports and University of Florida athletics for The Gainesville Sun. Contact him at Nram@gannett.com and follow him @Noah_ram1 on Twitter.
The Vero Beach Police Department took a man into custody May 8 in connection with a threatening phone call directed toward a business.
The agency received information at 5:21 p.m. May 7 about a threatening call to Thrive IRC Inc. at 2300 5th Ave. in Vero Beach, according to a news release. The call included someone threatening to come to the business with an AK rifle and “light the building up.”
Detectives began investigating the threat and identified Michael Sean O’Brien, 27, of Vero Beach, as the person associated with the phone number used during the call.
O’Brien was taken into custody at about 3:30 p.m. May 8 without incident. He was charged with the false report concerning the use of firearms in a violent manner, which is a second degree felony, according to the news release.
O’Brien was booked in the Indian River County Jail at 6:13 p.m. May 8 but was released at 1:36 p.m. May 9 after posting the $5,000 bond, according to the jail website.
No additional information was available the afternoon of May 9.
Olivia Franklin is TCPalm’s trending reporter. You can contact her at olivia.franklin@tcpalm.com, 317-627-8048 or follow her on X @Livvvvv_5.
Charmaine Hickey, of Lang Realty in Port St. Lucie, was named in KNOW Women’s “100 Women to KNOW in America” list.
A Treasure Coast woman was named in a “100 Women to know in America” list for 2026.
KNOW Women is a global media company dedicated to giving women leaders connections and visibility. The company released a list of “100 Women to know in America” for 2026 to highlight the most influential women in business and leadership.
Charmaine Hickey, who works for Lang Realty in Port St. Lucie, was on the list.
“Charmaine’s recognition on a national stage like this comes as no surprise,” said Scott Agran, president of Lang Realty in a news release. “Her leadership, integrity, and commitment to both her profession and her community exemplify what this award stands for. She represents the very best of our industry.”
Hickey holds many industry designations and is known for her expertise in complex real estate transactions, as well as her client-first approach defined by honesty, patience and attention to detail, according to the news release.
Her community involvement includes serving on nonprofit boards, mentoring emerging leaders and supporting initiatives focused on education, women, families and youth.
“I am truly honored to be recognized among such an inspiring group of women,” said Hickey in the news release. “This award reflects not just individual achievement, but the power of community, mentorship, and lifting others as we grow. I’m grateful to be part of a network of women who are building meaningful impact every day.”
To see the full list go to theknowwomen.com.
Olivia Franklin is TCPalm’s trending reporter. You can contact her at olivia.franklin@tcpalm.com, 317-627-8048 or follow her on X @Livvvvv_5.
A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death.
In a deposition from November that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply”.
Bryan died after the botched surgery; and in April, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter.
“I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during difficult circumstances”.
The deposition provided Shaknovksy’s first detailed account of the operation that killed Bryan and eventually garnered national news headlines.
According to Shaknovksy’s deposition, after removing Bryan’s liver, the surgeon instructed a nurse to label the organ as a “spleen” – and he also identified it as a spleen in Bryan’s postoperative notes. Shaknovsky later said he had been “mentally compromised” at the time of Bryan’s death, explaining that he was “devastated, demoralized, crying over his passing, felt that I failed him”.
A lawsuit filed by Bryan’s widow, Beverly Bryan, accuses Shaknovsky of medical malpractice. The suit alleges that he “wrongfully omitted any reference to Mr Bryan’s liver being removed in order to ‘cover up’ his gross negligence/recklessness and to hopefully avoid the embarrassment due to such derelict care”, as NBC reported.
In April, the Walton county sheriff’s office said in a statement that Shaknovsky’s actions inflicted on Bryan “catastrophic blood loss and the patient’s death on the operating table”.
Shaknovsky’s deposition testimony described the chaos in the operating room after Bryan began bleeding extensively, causing his heart to stop. Medical staff performed chest compressions, and Shaknovsky attempted to find where the bleeding was coming from.
“I couldn’t tell the difference because I was so upset,” he said, referring to the organ he mistakenly identified.
“It was like a overflown sink that’s clogged up, and I am looking for a fork at the bottom, trying to feel and find the bleed, and I was not able to do so,” Shaknovsky said. He added: “After 20 minutes of struggling – desperately trying – to save his life, that’s when the wrong-site event took place.
“It’s a devastating thing, which I will have to live with the rest of my life,” Shaknovsky said in the eight-hour deposition reviewed by NBC. “I think about it every single day.”
After the medical team was unable to resuscitate Bryan, Shaknovsky said he went to the hospital’s medical library. “I went there to cry because I was devastated,” he said. “I didn’t want the staff to see me like that.”
Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, Shaknovsky said he believed Bryan’s spleen was “double the size of what is normal” because of a mass on it. Beverly Bryan’s lawsuit, however, states that a medical examiner told her that her husband’s spleen was anatomically “nearly normal”, according to NBC.
Shaknovsky would face up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 if eventually convicted as charged.
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