[JRL]

ATHENS, Ga. – The Georgia gymnastics team finished No. 1 in the final rankings released Monday and were selected to compete in the Northeast Regional hosted by Penn State in University Park, Penn., on April 12.

Georgia competed the regular season with a 10-2 record, going undefeated in Southeastern Conference meets and winning the SEC Championships this past Saturday in Duluth, Ga., to improve their current mark to 16-2. The Gym Dogs’ final Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) is a 197.400, and in addition to a No. 1 overall RQS they are also ranked first on bars, beam and floor. They finished fifth on vault as well.

Georgia’s 197.400 RQS pairs the Gym Dogs with SEC member No. 12 Auburn, as both will be sent to compete in Pennsylvania with No. 13 Denver, No. 22 Penn State, No. 29 BYU and No. 30 Iowa State.

“We thought this was the Regional we’d end up in, so it isn’t too much of a surprise for us,” said Georgia head coach Suzanne Yoculan, a Penn State alum who will be returning to the site of her Alama Mater for this meet. “For me, personally, it will be nice to go back to my old stomping grounds and see some old friends, and for our team it’s probably the best we could have hoped for as far as proximity over the other possibilities.”

The competition order draw also was released Monday, and the Gym Dogs will begin on a bye before bars, followed by bars, beam, another bye, floor and vault.

“It’s all about gaining momentum, and starting on bars should really help us with that,” Yoculan said. “It’s been our best event all year long, and if we can really hit our stride there then we should put up some high scores on the next three events to follow as well.”

Georgia competed against two of the teams in its Regional already in 2008, defeating Auburn in a dual meet (197.125-195.475) and again in the SEC Championships (197.350-196.100), and handing Iowa state a 196.750-194.450 defeat on Senior Night just two weeks ago.

“We will mainly be focusing on our gymnastics and making those final improvements before NCAAs, but we also know we are capable of beating a few of these teams based on previous encounters, which should only help our confidence,” Yoculan continued.

Georgia competed in Denver in last year’s Regionals. They finished first in that meet and have come out on top at regional meets in nine of the last 10 years and all but five times in Yoculan’s 25 years as head coach.

Joining the six teams in the Northeast Regional are several individual all-arounders and event specials competing for spots in the National Championships. All-Arounders include Marissa Rosen (Pennsylvania), Alina Liao (Yale), Shannon Vafiadou (Pittsburgh), Lorriane Gallow (Bridgeport) and Laura Sevarino (Rutgers). Event specialists will be Helena Diodato (New Hampshire) on vault and bars, Taryn LaFountain (New Hampshire) on beam and Molly Moyer (Pittsburgh) on floor.

Other Regionals that day will be in Baton Rouge, La., Gainesville, Fla., Corvallis, Ore., Norman, Okla., and Minneapolis, Minn. The top two teams from all six regions will earn bids to the NCAA Championships here in Athens on April 24-26.

[Highflying]

Go get em dawgs