Spring Break
Sub-par performances plague Gym Dog opener
TYLER ESTEP
Issue date: 1/12/09 Section: Sports
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Superman she's not, but after the Gym Dogs looked more like Clark Kent than the Man of Steel in their win over West Virginia Friday, head coach Suzanne Yoculan promised she'd have her squad back in championship form by the time upcoming meets with rivals Utah and Alabama roll around.
"We're in big trouble really unless things change, but things will change," she said. "I can pull a Tebow and I can guarantee you one thing: You will never find anyone who works harder than me, and this team will get better."
Friday's season opener was a 195.425-194.075 romp over the Mountaineers, but the Gym Dogs counted falls on bars, beam and floor en route to posting their lowest all-around team score since the 2005 NCAA Regional.
"I feel like the team's holding back, they're not attacking events, not being strong," said senior Tiffany Tolnay. "We need to be aggressive."
Senior Courtney Kupets, a two-time individual all-around NCAA champion, was solid in her return from last year's Achilles tear, taking the all-around title after an awkward landing on vault and posting 9.975 and 9.950 on bars and floor, respectively.
But it was the Gym Dog freshmen that most concerned Yoculan. Kathryn Ding and Gina Nuccio both made their debuts on bars, and with mixed success - Ding slipped and her 9.375 counted after Abby Stack fell, and Nuccio posted a disappointing 9.775.
"We gave them opportunities to do exhibition routines, and had to scratch them because they just were not aggressive and they were not showing that they wanted to do it," Yoculan said. "It was disappointing. I didn't see the fire in the freshmen that I saw in the rest of our team."
If history teaches anything about the Gym Dogs, it's that they tend to improve as a season progresses - their season low all-around score has come in their first meet three times during their current run of four straight national titles. They opened the season with a 196.3 in a losing effort against Utah last year, but went on to post 10 scores above 197.
"Sometimes you need a down meet to show you that you're not in la-la land," said junior Grace Taylor.
The Gym Dogs travel to Baton Rouge to take on LSU Friday before hosting both Utah and Alabama next week. All three were Super Six teams a year ago, and will pose a test for a Georgia squad that is injury-plagued and lacking in depth.
"There's a big gap right now because we don't have [departed seniors] Katie Heenan and Nikki Childs and Megan [Dowlen] and Audrey [Bowers] and Courtney McCool," Yoculan said. "We don't have any depth. We have nothing. We have three people from last year's team not competing and no freshman help."
And as far as adding a 10th national championship to her résumé during her final season in Athens goes, Yoculan was less than enthusiastic.
"Are you kidding me? After tonight? You can't even think about it."
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
harshwords
posted 1/13/09 @ 8:55 PM EST
Such harsh words -- it's not like the team didn't try. And it was the debut of the freshmen, let's give them one meet to settle it. This team will rise to the occasion. (Continued…)
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