Trinity Thomas' dominance leads Florida gymnastics to NCAA regional final

AUBURN, Ala. — Trinity Thomas landed and let out a decisive proclamation: "Let's go!"

Onward to the next round.

By then, the meet was practically over, but Thomas' balance beam routine finished the night with a bang. She didn't quite reach a holy trinity of perfect 10s, but her NCAA regional performance Thursday night was a convincing reminder that she might be the brightest star competing in Auburn this weekend.

Thomas was perfect on uneven bars and floor routine, and her beam score was 9.975, leading second-seeded Florida gymnastics to the regional final Saturday (6 p.m. ET, ESPN+) at Neville Arena. The Gators finished with a 198.125 team score, comfortably topping Denver, Ohio State and Iowa State.

In the Sweet 16, Florida will face Auburn, Kentucky and Denver, with the two highest scorers advancing to the NCAA Championships. For Thomas, it brings a renewed all-around matchup with Auburn's Suni Lee.

Thomas won the all-around Thursday with a season-high, dominant 39.875.

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"Trinity just put everything together tonight, and she knows that there's still more in the tank," said Florida head coach Jenny Rowland. "So awesome to see her have that success and look forward to seeing her compete a few more times this season." 

The Gators flexed their muscles from start to finish. Their 49.7 mark on floor was their third-highest this season. Their 49.65 on bars was their second-highest.

Only on vault did Florida fumble, forced to keep Bri Edwards' 9.75 and a pair of 9.8 scores. Thomas was the steady, reliable presence in that event, too, her 9.9 keeping Florida above a 49 (49.1).

On beam, the Gators had four of the regional's top six performers. Thomas' last stuck landing might have missed perfection, but it was all the punctuation Florida needed.

"Gators are still dancing," Rowland said. She added there were some substitutions as Nya Reed "was out so we had some new players in today. The Gators just had a really solid start on floor. Moving on to vault, had some uncharacteristic vaults going on but Gators kept fighting. On bars, they got their momentum back. It was great — just one hit routine after another. Gators did just fantastic job closing on beam. They were focused and committed to the details all the way through to the end so really proud of them."