More on Gators in NCAA Semifinal Action: No. 3 Florida Gymnastics Looks for NCAA Titles No. 4 in Fort Worth

FORT WORTH, Texas — The night remains fresh in Leanne Wong’s mind. It will be that way long after Wong finishes her UF career this week at the NCAA Gymnastics Championships.

If she ever needs a reminder, Wong can scroll through the photos and videos on her smartphone. She was inside the O’Dome from a much different vantage point than usual. She cheered instead of being cheered.

“It was really special,” Wong said. “It was like a true college experience.”

Nine days ago, on the night the Gators men’s basketball team defeated Houston to win the program’s third national title, and first in 18 years, Wong was one of more than 11,000 students who packed the O’Dome for a national championship watch party.

She watched nervously as the game came down to the final possession. She erupted with her friends when Alex Condon dove on a loose ball to clinch the victory as the clock expired. She stayed in the stands when fans rushed the court.

“I felt like I was in a good spot,” she said.

Afterward, Wong and her friends streamed to University Avenue to check out the celebration that took over the streets around campus. She gulped in the scene for a while and then called it a night. To celebrate and for a keepsake, she purchased championship “merch.”

Soon, the competitor inside Wong began to burn. What if the Gators gymnastics team could win it all in Fort Worth?

“That would be amazing,” she said. “We would want the same thing – the whole university going crazy for us and super excited for the gymnastics team.”

Florida opens its bid for the program’s fourth national championship – and first since 2015 – on Thursday afternoon in the NCAA Championships Semifinal I (4:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2). The Gators are grouped with Southeastern Conference rivals Alabama, Missouri and Oklahoma. Defending national champion LSU, UCLA, Utah and Michigan State compete in Thursday’s second semifinal. The top two teams in each semifinal qualify for the NCAA Finals on Saturday afternoon.

The Gators advanced by winning the NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional two weeks ago by edging the host Crimson Tide. Wong did her part as usual, sharing the floor (9.950) and vault (9.900) titles to move into sole possession of fourth place on Florida’s career wins list (88).

The Gators will need a team effort to claim the program’s first national championship in a decade, but head coach Jenny Rowland, in her 1oth season, is confident that the talent is there. Florida would become the first program to win an NCAA gymnastics national championship under two different head coaches.

“It really is anybody’s competition,” Rowland said. “You could compete four different nights, and you would probably get four different winners. It comes down, really, to a stick-fest. It’s just enjoying the moment and making the most of the moment. This team, I have to say, is really fired up.

“They’re fighting, they’re challenging themselves, they’re challenging each other to really lay it out there and not leave any stone unturned.”

Florida has made five consecutive NCAA Championships and 41 in the event’s 43-year history. The Gators have been so close recently, finishing fourth in 2021 and 2024 and national runner-up in 2022 and 2023.

Wong has made it to the national championship meet for all four years of her career and is part of a senior class that includes Sloane Blakely (injured), Bri Edwards, Riley McCusker, Ellie Lazzari, and Victoria Nguyen.

The veterans anchor a deep roster loaded with talented underclassmen, highlighted by UCLA transfer Selena Harris-Miranda and freshman Skye Blakely. The Gators have faced adversity – most notably the loss of Sloane Blakely to a lower leg injury midseason – but have put up some of the top scores in the country. Florida has scored a team 198 five times this season, including a 198.625 against Kentucky on March 14, which remains the nation’s top score this season.

“This team wants to stay hot,” Rowland said. “I know this is something that this team, from day 1, has been on a mission for. We’re really good when we go out there and just have fun.”

Wong can think of nothing more fun than celebrating another national title — this one, a little more personal.

“We definitely have the potential to win,” she said. “It would be incredible.”

And for those keeping score, it would be Florida’s 50th team national championship in school history and second this month in the Lone Star State.

“It would also be a great celebration of a mission they have been on since day one,” Rowland said.