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UF sports roundup Jan. 8, 2017: Gymnastics, track and field, women's basketball, men's tennis

The football team finished its season with a 30-3 win in the Outback Bowl and the 24th-ranked men's basketball team is off to a 3-0 start in Southeastern Conference play.

But what about the rest of the UF athletics program? As spring sports begin to get underway, here's a quick recap of what has happened throughout the week.

Gymnastics

The preseason No. 5 Florida gymnastics team handily won its season-opening meet against N.C. State, topping the Wolfpack 197.100-194.925 on Sunday in Raleigh, North Carolina.

It was Florida's second-highest season-opening score in program history.

Junior Kennedy Baker won the all-around with a 39.500 score, including a 9.925 on floor and a 9.900 on vault.

Three newcomers made their collegiate debut for the Gators (1-0) in the win. Amelia Hundley finished third in the all-around with a 39.375 and did not post a score lower than a 9.800. Rachel Gowey competed on the uneven bars (9.200) and beam (9.875), while Maegan Chant made her debuts on vault (9.825), bars (9.800) and floor (9.700).

Florida will make its home debut on Friday when it hosts Kentucky. The meet is set to start at 6:45 p.m. and a live stream will be available through SEC Network+.

 

Track and Field

Freshman Grant Holloway headlined a slew of top-10 Florida performances at Clemson's Orange and Purple Classic to open the 2017 indoor season on Saturday.

Holloway won the 300-meter dash in a school-record time of 32.8 seconds, a mark that also ranks as the second-fastest by anyone under the age of 20, the third-best in collegiate history and 38th-best in the world. Holloway also posted the second-fastest 60-meter hurdles time in UF history at 7.63 seconds

Also posting top-10 performances at the meet:

  Freshman Clayton Brown, whose 2.25-meter performance on the high jump ranks as the fifth-best mark in UF indoors history

  Freshman Timetria Mitchell -- a graduate of Miami's Northwestern High -- whose 8.38-second performance in the 60-meter hurdles is the fifth-fastest in UF history.

  Junior Lloydricia Cameron -- another Northwestern High graduate -- who bettered her ninth-place spot in the shot put with a 16.35-meter throw.

  And redshirt sophomore AJ McFarland, who moved up to fourth in UF's weight throw rankings with a 20.78-meter performance.

The Gators will next compete and the Commodore Invitational hosted by Vanderbilt on Friday and Saturday.

Women's Basketball

The UF women's basketball team's slide has continued.

The Gators lost both games this week -- a 78-67 road defeat to LSU on Thursday and an 81-62 loss at home Sunday to No. 5 South Carolina -- to fall to 9-7 on the season and 0-3 in conference play. It's the first time the Gators have lost their first three conference games since the 2006-07 season.

The road doesn't get any easier for Florida, which will hit the road to face No. 4 Mississippi State on Thursday before coming home to face a 10-6 Georgia team that has won three of its last four.

Men's Tennis

The men's tennis team sent nine players to compete in the USA F3 Futures pro tournament in Plantation, two of whom have advanced to Monday's final round of qualifying. Junior Chase Perez-Blanco has won all three of his initial matches in straight sets. Freshman Johannes Ingildsen, a Denmark native, needed three sets to win his opening qualifying round matchup against Andrew Hiller before winning his next two games in straight sets.

The main draw will feature 32 singles players and will run from Tuesday through Saturday.

The men's tennis team, coming off an SEC Tournament Championship and an NCAA Tournament run last season that saw them reach the quarterfinals, will begin its dual season on Jan. 21 with a doubleheader against Georgia Southern and Kennesaw State.

 

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