Florida's McMurtry wins 2017 NCAA Elite 90 Award

ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Last month, Alex McMurtry became the first Gator to be Southeastern Conference Gymnast and Scholar-Athlete in the same season.

Tonight, McMurtry claims another first.

McMurtry is the 2017 NCAA Elite 90 Award winner for the sport of gymnastics. She received the honor at the NCAA Championship banquet, held at Neo on Locust Wednesday night.

She is the first Gator student-athlete in any sport to claim the honor since its inception in 2010. The honor goes to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average at the final site of each of the NCAA's 90 championship.

McMurtry owns a 4.0 grade point average in Applied Physiology & Kinesiology- Exercise Physiology. This season, McMurtry won both the SEC Championships (39.70) and NCAA Gainesville Regional (39.675) all-around titles. She's one of two gymnasts in the nation to record 10.0 marks in three different events (vault, bars, floor) this season.

McMurtry picked up 2017 National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches (NACGC) All-America first-team regular-season honors for vault, uneven bars and second team for balance beam. She also is the NACGC Southeast Region Gymnast of Year.

"So proud of what Alex has accomplished in academics and athletics. She is the epitome of a student-athlete," Florida Head Coach Jenny Rowland said. "She's a supportive teammate and always puts the team first. I couldn't think a better representative to be the University of Florida's first Elite 90 recipient."

McMurtry and the rest of the Gators are in St. Louis this week for the 36th edition of the NCAA Championships. Florida competes in NCAA Semifinal II, set for 8 p.m. ET in the Chaifetz Arena. A top-three finish would send the Gators to Saturday's NCAA Super Six team final.

Semifinal II begins on ESPNU at 8 p.m. ET and then flips to ESPN at 9 p.m. ET. Saturday's Super Six airs on ESPNU.