The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/25/08 Section: News

Media Credit: RICHARD HAMM Gym Dogs celebrate Friday night after winning their fourth straight national championship.

Media Credit: RICHARD HAMM Gym Dogs celebrate Friday night after winning their fourth straight national championship.

Georgia's Gym Dogs had little problem claiming their fourth straight national championship Friday night at Stegeman Coliseum, leading by 0.375 after their first event and never looking back.

The Gym Dogs never led by less than three-tenths of a point, and spent the final rotation in a bye knowing Utah would have had to come up with a 49.675 on bars even to tie them.

"I always say that 'winning the title is relative to how your competition competes' and tonight we were the best," Georgia coach Suzanne Yoculan said. "It was close all night but after bars we knew that we were close to victory."

Georgia's quartet of seniors (Audrey Bowers, Nikki Childs, Megan Dowlen and Katie Heenan) leaves Athens with four titles and will forever remain unbeaten in NCAA action.

"I love this place. When we first came here, we didn't know what we were getting into," Heenan said.

The Gym Dogs' score of 197.450 is their lowest championship total during their current streak of four consecutive titles. After topping Utah by six-tenths of a point in last year's NCAAs and by almost a full point in 2006, Georgia continued the trend Friday with another sizable margin over the Utes (197.450-197.125). Stanford came in third with a 196.750.

Tiffany Tolnay and Katie Heenan tied for third in the all-around. Heenan is just the third gymnast ever to be an All-American and win a national championship in all four years of her college career.

Georgia is just the second team to ever win four straight national gymnastics titles. Utah won the inaugural five championships from 1982-86.

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