The Red and Black

Issue date: 3/16/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: DANIEL SHIREY Gym Dogs head coach Suzanne Yoculan embraces senior gymnast Paige Burns during Yoculan's last home game with the Gym Dogs Saturday. [Click to enlarge]

Five "seniors" said an emotional farewell to Stegeman Coliseum Saturday night, as the top-ranked Gym Dogs dispatched Michigan to close out their regular season.

Georgia's 197.400-195.775 win over the Wolverines completed a perfect 12-0 regular season, and junior Grace Taylor scored her second career 10. But the focus was on Gym Dogs coach Suzanne Yoculan, who will retire after the season, and her four senior gymnasts Saturday, as they made their final competitive appearances in Athens.

"I feel like this program is a part of me for sure, and that part's always going to be here, and I'm always going to have a place here in this arena," said Yoculan, in her 26th and final season as the coach of Georgia gymnastics.

The Gym Dogs started off strong, and were halfway to their second 198 of the season with a 99.0 at the midpoint of the meet. They appeared they might be wavering slightly after senior Paige Burns had a few significant wobbles on beam and junior Courtney McCool fell off, but Taylor countered on the very next routine with her first career 10 on beam.

Senior Courtney Kupets, one of the most decorated collegiate gymnasts of all-time, took the all-around title for the 10th time in 11 meets this season with a 39.70 in her final showing in Athens.

"I've kind of thought about it for four years now," Kupets said. "When it gets to senior night every year, you kind of think, that's going to be me in three years, that's going to be me in two years, that's going to be me in a year."

Her classmate Tiffany Tolnay, a 12-time All-American in her own right, finished with a 39.275 on the all-around. She said she was OK for most of the meet but admitted she let the emotion of her last time in Athens get to her when the fathers of the four seniors came down to the Coliseum sidelines for Georgia's final rotation on floor.

Continued...

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