As the site’s name implies, we here at Dawg Sports cover University of Georgia athletics comprehensively, and many sports (including golf and tennis, for which SEC tournament final recaps are forthcoming) are the subject of individual postings specific to a particular athletic endeavor. However, Bulldog Nation is a busy place (so much so that an open comment thread sometimes is required), and, consequently, circumstances dictate that we, like Inigo Montoya, periodically lack the time to explain, and, therefore, must make do with summing up, which is why I now bring you the Sunday sports summary:
After Wednesday night’s game against Georgia Tech was rained out, the twelfth-ranked Georgia softball team carded a nationally-televised 7-4 victory over No. 2 Alabama on Thursday night by building up a 7-0 lead after two innings and holding on to notch the victory.
Unfortunately, the Tide took the series, starting by evening up the three-game set with Alabama’s 8-3 victory over the Bulldogs on Friday. Despite striking out nine, Morgan Montemayor absorbed the loss by walking four, conceding a dozen hits, and surrendering eight runs. In Saturday’s rubber match, Georgia out-hit the Tide, 10-7, only to fall, 6-4, in the all-important runs column. Trailing, 2-1, heading into the seventh stanza, the Lady Bulldogs allowed four runs, including consecutive homers, in the top of the frame before commencing a rally. Paige Wilson brought Tess Sito home with a double before Kristyn Sandberg put one out to right center field to tack on two more. That was as close as the Athenians came, though, and Georgia fell to 13-9 in conference play as a result.
At this weekend’s Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif., Matt Cleaver set a new school record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and Kristie Krueger shattered a 15-year-old school mark in the 5,000-meter run. Meanwhile, at the War Eagle Invitational in Auburn, Ala., Stella Christoforou won the 1,500-meter run and Charlie Sparks won the steeplechase.
Also in action for the Red and Black in the so-called Loveliest Village was Justin Scott-Wesley, making his freshman debut for the Bulldog track team following the close of spring football practice. Scott-Wesley finished 15th in the 100 preliminaries with a 10.79 time. In the Region 4-AAAA high school championships, Georgia track signee Ayrian Evans carded the meet’s top preliminary time in the 200, earning the highest seed with a 21.64 after injuries to his hamstring and quadricep prevented Evans from participating in the 400.
Florida State’s 15-14 men’s club lacrosse win over Florida on Friday night set up a playoff rematch between the Bulldogs and the Gators at Alpharetta High School at 8:00 p.m. Eastern this coming Friday. During the regular season, Georgia handed Florida a 14-3 setback in Athens, and the winner of the April 27 quarterfinal will take on the Alabama-FSU winner on Saturday evening.
Though the Gym Dogs’ team season ended in disappointment, the individual event finals saw Kat Ding close out her collegiate career with NCAA titles in the floor exercise and on the uneven bars. Ding’s individual national championships brought to 40 the number of such crowns won by Georgia gymnasts, more than any other program can claim. Her career-best marks of 9.95 on the floor and 9.9875 on the bars made Ding the second outright bars champion to repeat the feat in NCAA history. Gym Dog Lucy Wener was the first to do so, in 1986 and 1987. Since 1989, Georgia has seen one of its gymnasts win multiple individual national titles in the same spring eight times.
As a Red and Black gymnastics fan, I hate seeing a Super Six without the Athenians in it, and I can’t stand Sarah Patterson and her Alabama program, which is, of course, Georgia’s biggest gymnastics rival. Nevertheless, I was pleased to see the Crimson Tide win a sixth NCAA women’s gymnastics championship, for the single and simple reason that Alabama’s 197.85 was all that prevented Florida’s 197.775 from clinching the Gators’ first national championship in the sport Georgia historically has dominated.
Go ‘Dawgs!