On Saturday, Athens hosted the G-Day game in Sanford Stadium and the Diamond Dogs’ second series meeting with Ole Miss at Foley Field, but the Gym Dogs were in action in Columbia, Mo., in the NCAA Regionals. Astonishingly, the five-time defending national champions were eliminated in the first round.
The Red and Black claimed second place in the vault with a 49.15 score that trailed only Missouri’s 49.3, but the Athenians finished fifth on the bars with a 48.75 mark that exceeded only North Carolina’s 48.475. The latter performance prevented Georgia’s first-place tally on the beam (49.175) and second-place total on the floor (49.2) from enabling the Bulldogs to finish higher than tied for second place with a 196.275 score that equaled Oregon State’s and trailed Missouri’s 196.5.
The 2010 Women’s Gymnastics Championships Handbook states: "In the team competition (regionals), ties for second place will be broken by counting six scores per event." If the discarded low scores from each event are added back into both teams’ totals, Oregon State outpolls Georgia by a 235.2-234.8 margin.
Cassidy McComb ended up tied for ninth in the all-around with 39.025, while Courtney McCool tied for first place in the floor exercise and claimed the top spot all to herself on the balance beam with 9.9 marks in both events.
When we learned which regional site the Gym Dogs had drawn, I was unequivocal in stating that a finish below second place would constitute a major upset and that I would consider the season a failure if Georgia didn’t make it out of the regional and would be concerned if the Red and Black didn’t win it outright. Well, for just the second time in the last thirteen years, Georgia did not finish first in its regional, and the Gym Dogs did not advance to the championship round. There is no way to regard the 2010 gymnastics season as anything other than an absolute failure for the Red and Black.
Go ‘Dawgs!