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As expected, the Georgia Gym Dogs will be participating in the Athens regional in Stegeman Coliseum on April 5 at 4:00 PM, and will be the top-seeded team in the meet. They'll need to finish in the top 2 on the night to advance to the NCAA nationals, which should be a pretty straightforward goal.
The teams drawn against them reads like a list of potential bowl opponents for the Dawgs' football team, and most of them are either already in the B1G or are heading there after this season. The lineup for the Athens regional is as follows (national ranking in parentheses):
- Georgia (6)
- Michigan (7) (Capital One Bowl)
- Central Michigan (18) (Independence Bowl)
- Ohio State (20) (Outback Bowl)
- NC State (28) (Chick-Fil-A Bowl)
- Rutgers (32) (
Music CityGator Bowl)
Only one team, the Michigan Gym Wolves (that's not what they call themselves, but they should), has scored higher than Georgia's highest score this season. Michigan's highest score this season was 197.825, and our highest score this season was 197.650. The next-highest ranked team, Central Michigan, only has a season-high score of 196.600, which is only higher than our scores in the first two meets of the season. So, in other words, it would take a colossal faux-pas on the part of the Gym Dogs to fail to finish in the top 2 and advance to nationals. Personally, since it's our last home performance of the season, I'd like to see a season-high score somewhere in the high 197's or even a 198. That's my expectation as we get ready for the big-time.
The other regional meets are as follows (National ranking, again, in parentheses):
| Baton Rouge Regional | Fayetteville Regional | |
| LSU (3) (host) | Utah (5) | |
| Stanford (10) | UCLA (8) | |
| Auburn (13) | Arkansas (17) (host) | |
| Arizona (21) | Arizona State (24) | |
| Kent State (27) | Utah State (30) | |
| Iowa State (35) | UC Davis (34) |
|
Minneapolis Regional |
Seattle Regional | |
| Oklahoma (2) | Alabama (4) (snicker) | |
| Illinois (11) |
Nebraska (9) | |
| Minnesota (14) (host) | Boise State (16) | |
| California (19) | Denver (20) | |
| Southern Utah (26) | BYU (25) | |
| San Jose State (31) | Washington (33) (host) |
|
University Park Regional |
| Florida (1) (second snicker) |
| Oregon State (12) |
| Penn State (15) (host) |
| New Hampshire (23) |
| Kentucky (29) |
| Maryland (38) |
The full list of individual competitors (in addition to the teams listed) invited to each regional meet is available at the NCAA announcement page. Also, the NCAA appears to have done something I haven't seen before and actually put out a gymnastics bracket this year. If that document is correct (and if the favorites hold in the regionals), we'd essentially be competing against Oklahoma, LSU, and Michigan (and maybe Stanford) for the 3 spots in the Super Six.