Gym Dogs to host Kentucky

The University of Georgia Women’s Gymnastics team will host the #13th ranked Kentucky Wildcats Friday night at Stegeman Coliseum. This is the team’s annual “Pink Meet”, and is being promoted as “Flip For A Cause” to support Breast Cancer awareness.

Kentucky and UGA are both 2-2 in conference this season, so the winner looks to gain the edge in conference record. Kentucky and Georgia are two of the handful of teams having eclipsed the 197 mark in a meet.

The Wildcats rank 12th in Vault compared to the Bulldogs 3rd, but do have a 14 ranking in Bars whereas the Gym Dogs are 18th. But that is the only deficit, as Georgia has a 5 ranking on Beam (!!!) and UK is 20th. Floor is #9 vs #15 with the advantage to the Athenians.

So on paper, Georgia is favored. Count in the Steg factor, plus the expected large turnout, and UGA should capture a valuable conference win. In this uneducated fan’s opinion, I’d like to see some more consistency on Bars. We were a bit shaky on Beam last week, but unlike the last couple of seasons, our Beam performance has been very solid in 2019.

Another item of note: Rachel Baumann was named the SEC Freshmen of the Week for her peformance last week at Mizzou. Baumann captured the event title on Beam scoring a 9.900 leading all ‘Dawgs. She also posted a 9.850 on floor, contributing to the Gym Dogs 1st SEC road win this season. (Side note: her sister is a sophomore on the Florida Gator Gymnastic team. I’m sure she’s a lovely young lady, but I Hate Florida).

The meet will be broadcast on the SEC Network at 6:45 pm ET. The early starting time is probably to accommodate the other big SEC battle - #2 Florida visiting #9 Alabama, which is also broadcast on SEC Network at 8:30 ET.

And as always...

GO ‘DAWGS!!!