Florida

Defending Co-Champ Florida in NCAA Women's Gymnastics Final

Defending co-champion Florida, Stanford and Utah advanced to the Super Six finals of the NCAA women's gymnastics championships Friday.

Utah's Georgia Dabritz helped her team move on with a perfect 10 on uneven bars near the end of the opening semifinal session.

Florida, which has won consecutive team titles, and Utah were tied at 197.475. Stanford finished at 197.175.

UCLA was among the teams eliminated, but former Olympian Samantha Peszek was tied for the all-around lead with Florida's Kytra Hunter, who won the all-around as a freshman in 2012.

Florida shared last year's title with Oklahoma, which was in the other semifinal session Friday night.

Dabritz's perfect score on bars pushed her past a three-way tie at 9.95 that included 2014 bars champion Bridget Sloan of Florida. She had just the third 10 on bars at the NCAA meet after falling off the balance beam, Utah's first event. That fall kept her out of the all-around lead.

"I had to change my attitude real quick and turn it around for the team because we were heading into our second event," said Dabritz, who was the national runner-up on bars in 2013. "I think that definitely happened and then ended my night on a high and it was just amazing."

Peszek scored a 9.9 on all four events, while Hunter made up for a slightly lower score on vault with the top early score on floor exercise at 9.95.

Stanford's Elizabeth Price and Utah's Kari Lee led vault at 9.95. Peszek and Hunter were among six the top beam score of 9.9.

The Cardinal came in as one of six teams without a championship, while Utah has nine titles but hasn't won the championship since 1995. Stanford and Utah advanced to the finals for the first time since 2012.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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