The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/17/09 Section: Sports

Junior Gym Dog Grace Taylor picked up two All-American honors on beam and bars Thursday. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: PHOTOS BY DANIEL SHIREY Hilary Mauro starts to fall on her beam routine at NCAAs, the second straight meet she's done so. [Click to enlarge]

Lauren Sessler performs her vault routine, scoring a 9.825. [Click to enlarge]

LINCOLN, Neb. - As Thursday's afternoon session at the NCAA Championships wound down, chants of "SEC" flooded Lincoln's Devaney Center.

The cheers were because Georgia, Florida and LSU swept the metaphorical podium, each punching its ticket to today's Super Six.

But it had a deeper meaning for Georgia, which posted a 197.450 en route to claiming the top spot by more than a full point.

With the win no longer much in doubt for the Gym Dogs, they took to the mats for their final event - beam. Sophomore Hilary Mauro fell in the leadoff spot, just like she did at the SEC Championships, Georgia's only loss of the year.

But, unlike at SECs, Cassidy McComb didn't fall next, senior Courtney Kupets went on to post a 10, and beam officially clinched the preliminary title for the Gym Dogs.

"Thank goodness that happened at SECs," said head coach Suzanne Yoculan. "At SECs, we couldn't recover from it. But Cassidy in the second spot said, 'I'm not coming off again.' To go through that as a team makes you stronger and tougher, so we were prepared for it."

McComb looked like a surfer trying to stay on her board at times during her routine, but refused to fall off on the way to a 9.775. That set up 9.950s from Grace Taylor and Courtney McCool, and the fifth perfect 10 of Kupets' season.

"I was not letting that happen again," McComb said. "I knew that feeling, and I wasn't letting my team down or myself down."

Said Taylor: "Beam, I didn't really feel like it was a problem. We've been practicing a lot and sometimes in practice, somebody will fall and the rest of us have to hit. We know how to do a beam set with five people hitting and still get an awesome score. And that's one of Georgia's strengths."

Kupets (39.800) and classmate Tiffany Tolnay (39.500) finished 1-2 in the all-around, as the Gym Dogs bested conference-mates Florida (196.375) and LSU (196.300) for the top spot.

In addition to her second 10 of the season on beam, Kupets charted 9.95s on bars and floor, both meet-highs.

Outside of their season-high-tying 49.550 on beam, the Gym Dogs weren't spectacular - their scores on every other apparatus were middle-of-the-road or lower as far as their season averages go.

But they did post the exact same score they did while winning their fourth-consecutive NCAA championships last season, and room for improvement is a good thing.

"Imagine when we're on on all four events," McCool said. "We're going to blow that out of the arena."

The Gym Dogs will begin today's competition on bars, then move to beam and floor before ending on vault.

Making their way to the Super Six from the second session are Alabama, Arkansas and Utah. That makes five SEC teams in the final six.

Another win today would give Georgia a 10th national title, breaking their tie with the Utes for the most all-time in Yoculan's final year as the head Gym Dog.

The pressure will be there, but that only makes Thursday's recovery more valuable.

"It really just made the whole day for us to be able to hit beam like that under pressure," Yoculan said. "We know there's going to be a lot more [today], so to have a little taste of it [Thursday] on balance beam I think was very very good for our team."


GEORGIA'S SUPER SIX OPPONENTS

The four-time defending champion Gym Dogs have made it to the Super Six again, and will host a familiar set of foes when action gets underway tonight at 7 EST. Here's a look at its five opponents, and how Georgia fared in its matchups earlier this season. Scores from Thursday's preliminaries in parentheses.

ALABAMA (197.025)
Georgia made easy work of the Tide in Athens on Jan. 23, topping them by a score of 197.175-196.275, a week after beating Utah. But 'Bama is the only team to get the best of the Gym Dogs this season with a first-place finish at SECs.

ARKANSAS (196.950)
Arkansas has been world beaters this year, and their inclusion in the Super Six in no exception. The Razorbacks beat both Alabama and Florida this season, but dropped their meet against Georgia.

UTAH (196.625)
The Gym Dogs bested archrival Utah 197.150-196.725 on Jan. 19, their smallest margin of victory all season. Utah squeaked into the Super Six, narrowly winning a tiebreaker over UCLA. To win the tiebreaker the judges went back and counted the top six scores as opposed to just the top five.

FLORIDA (196.375)
Georgia exploded for a 198.2, its highest score in a decade, on Feb. 28. The Gym Dogs won the meet 198.2-196.650.
The Gators, battling injuries throughout the season, finished third at SECs.

LSU (196.300)
The Gym Dogs topped LSU 196.850-195.950 in their first road meet of the season. The Tigers finished at disappointing fourth at SECs with a 196.550.


Suzanne Yoculan press conference after Georgia's win at 2009 NCAA prelims

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