Arkansas Looking to Take Part in Pair of Firsts Friday Night
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — As the Razorbacks gymnastics team counts down the final few hours before its road showdown against No. 6 Florida, there is hope in the air that not one, but two firsts can happen on what should be one of the biggest nights in the sport.
The first is a given. Arkansas fans will be able to take in the back and forth against the Gators on ESPN in primetime. This is the first time Florida gymnastics will ever appear live on the main network. While the Gators will find themselves on either ESPN or ESPN 2 a total of four times this year, it's the only opportunity for the Razorbacks to get such exposure.
Even still, the single appearance is a big deal in regard to how far the sport has come. For a good part of a decade things were shown on tape delay if at all. When Florida won its national championship in 2014, America didn't see it until 12 days later.
Eventually the SEC Network began testing whether there was a market for gymnastics on Friday nights. Building on the moniker "Friday Night Heights," the sport gained enough momentum to finally convince executives to carry the sport on its more national brands.
However, if Arkansas is to take advantage of the spotlight, there will have to be drastic improvement over last Friday's uncharacteristic performance against LSU that dropped the Razorbacks all the way from No. 7 in the nation to No. 13. National rankings in gymnastics are objective, meaning teams are ranked by their average scores over the course of a season.
If the Razorbacks win, it will provide a second first. Arkansas has only defeated Florida three times in program history, none of which have been in Gainesville. For perspective, the two have faced off 54 times.
That will be a tall task as the Gators have at least one gymnast who has averaged a 9.9 or higher in all four events, including three on vault. Lauren Williams, who averages a 9.925 on floor, is the only Razorback event leader to meet that standard.
"We hit this point in the season almost every year, especially when we have a really great start where, you know, they they want to so bad," Arkansas coach Jordyn Wieber said. "They want to keep achieving, especially when you set a program record your second meet on the road. It's like they know that they're capable of those things. It's (A) How do you maintain it? And then, (B) how do you sort of manage those expectations for not just for yourself, but that other people have for you?"
To stack the deck further, Florida is hosting Arkansas at its annual Link to Pink meet. It's one of the most popular themed meets on the schedule each year, so the atmosphere will be higher and more festive than a standard meet. The Razorbacks struggled with the packed house at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge last week where LSU and Arkansas gymnasts outdrew their basketball counterparts by nearly 5,000 fans.
"[That was] our first does of adversity," Wieber said. "I think it's really good for every team to experience a learning lesson like that and figure out OK, we know what to expect when we're in a really tough environment like LSU. We need to be ready for it because Florida is going to be the same."
More important than coming away with a win for Arkansas is the need to improve upon the 197.025 meet average. Pushing as close to a 198.000 as possible will not only give the Razorbacks a good chance to win, but it will vault them back up the national rankings.
"All of that is relatively new for a lot of these girls," Wieber said. "I mean, Arkansas has never competed at this at this level consistently, and so they're kind of managing those expectations, figuring out how do we just be ourselves, do what we know how to do and shut out all of the distractions that should we shouldn't be thinking about. So that's really the mindset going into this weekend is just having this be our reset meet and just having fun being ourselves."
While Florida has been consistent all season with its 197.331 average, Arkansas has a better season high of 197.525 posted against No. 7 Alabama earlier this season, so, unlike many years, a win is a definite possibility. The meet will begin at 7 p.m.
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