GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Taking a deep breath, she checks her bag one more time for her good luck charms – a little elephant and a King Cake baby named Charles. She steps onto the floor, signature smile already on her face. The K-pop fusion music she chose for her floor routine is barely heard over the screams of her team and thousands of Gator fans.

This isn’t Taylor Clark about to perform, but rather her alter ego: Dakota.

Clark – or Dakota – may only be a sophomore, but her bubbly smile and energetic floor routines have captivated Gators fans and judges alike. Scoring a season-best of 9.90 on floor against Alabama in January, Clark has set herself as a staple in the UF lineup.

“I guess Dakota’s on the floor, and she’s just being really true to her authentic self, so showing [off to] the crowd,” Clark said. “I really love the crowd, so I guess that’s what Dakota loves, and she just loves drawing in people.”

Clark can undoubtedly draw in people. Selected as a 2025 SEC All-Freshman, 11 of her 17 career floor scores have earned a 9.875 or better.

“Taylor has been so much fun to work with … she truly brings so much joy to this team, which is incredible because she can bring a lightheartedness to practice, and it’s contagious,” head coach Jenny Rowland said. “Her smile, her bubbliness, her love for gymnastics – it truly shows when she’s in the gym. It shows when she’s out on the competition floor.”

An energetic kid, Clark initially got into gymnastics when she was a 3-year-old after a mother’s friend suggested she try out “Mommy and Me” classes. She began focusing solely on gymnastics at 6, dropping soccer.

Clark was homeschooled after second grade, which gave her extra time to dedicate to her gymnastics training. Despite practicing for most of her life, Clark decided much later to compete in collegiate gymnastics after she “started having fun again.”

“I felt like I lost the fun in the sport, and I definitely think I regained that and found my love for the sport again,” Clark said.

She credits her club coach, Valentin Buse, for improving her confidence in her gymnastics.

“He definitely has shaped my mind in a way where I believe in myself a lot more. I definitely did not have that much confidence [in my junior year],” she said. “He really helped me build that confidence into my mind. I think that really carried on to college.”

Clark ultimately had an impressive Level 10 gymnastics career, earning titles on the floor exercise and vault. She earned the Region Eight vault title two years in a row, in 2022 and 2023, and won floor exercise in 2023. She was the 2023 floor exercise runner-up for the U.S. Development Program East All-Stars, and she was twice crowned floor exercise champion in the state of Florida.

Despite specializing in floor exercise and vault, Clark enjoys all gymnastics events and hopes to compete in all of them.

“I come into the gym trying to add on,” she said. “I’ve recently tried adding on vault. I was able to warm that up last competition, and it felt really good. The coaches were really proud of me for that, too, so maybe later in the season, I’ll be adding that on.”

Rowland also noted this change within Clark, highlighting her increasing willingness to show off her talent.

“Her confidence in herself has just blossomed,” Rowland said. “To see her compete versus last year, she was a little shy, a little hesitant to share with everybody how good she is. To see her be able to have that confidence and go out there and know how good she is – it’s been really great to see that transformation.”

 

Her newfound confidence has become part of her floor routines. Clark has a lot of autonomy over it, determining much of the choreography and music that she will perform.

“I just tell [assistant coach] Jeremy [Miranda], I wanted to be powerful because I feel like I’m a powerful gymnast. And my old routines, I didn’t really feel very powerful in them. I want to amplify that I’m a powerful gymnast, and I want my dance to be the same,” Clark said.

It’s not just her coaches who have boosted Clark’s confidence. Clark has found herself mentored most closely by senior Selena Harris-Miranda, an 18-time All-American and one of the Gators’ stars.

Both were newcomers last season, Clark as a freshman and Harris-Miranda as a junior transfer from UCLA.

“Selena … has helped me so much to grow as a person,” Clark said. “I feel like we definitely feed off each other, in a sense. She’s even said she’s taken some of the stuff from me and learned from me, so I feel like she’s my biggest mentor.”

As a sophomore, Clark has become a mentor for younger teammates. Freshman Jayla Booker, in particular, has found herself taken under Clark’s wing.

Booker has followed a similar path to Clark at UF as an in-state recruit specializing in floor exercise. Both have tied for a season-best of 9.90, with Booker earning it at home against West Virginia on Jan. 9.

“I tell Jayla to trust her training because that’s what I feel like I tell myself a lot: ‘You’re beautiful in here. You’re beautiful, like everything you do is just so amazing.’ And just trust that, and do the exact same thing,” Clark said. “You don’t have to change anything because you’re in a big old dome where people are screaming, yelling. There’s cameras everywhere. I feel like that really draws you in; you get nervous. I was like, ‘Don’t worry about that. Just be in you, and that’s it. And then just hear your team, and that’s it.’ “

The energy Clark has given and received is exactly the reason she wanted to join the Gators in the first place.

“Coming to Gator camp, even though I wasn’t practicing with the [team], the girls were the camp leaders, and getting to know them was really fun,” Clark said. “I think that’s what really was like, ‘Yeah, I really do like this, and this is where I wanna be.’ “

Still, she had her eye on another school. However, when UF showed interest in her, Clark took a closer look at Gators gymnastics.

“I really felt like the academics and the gymnastics was really good and what I wanted, so I think that’s what really kind of made me a fan,” she said.

Now settled into the Gators’ lineup, Clark is ready to compete when the Gators visit Missouri on Friday night.

Or perhaps, Dakota is ready.