Georgia Gymnastics Seeks Its Eleventh National Championship

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 Seeking its eleventh national title, the Georgia gymnastics team carries the country’s most storied  collegiate tradition to the NCAA Championships .

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The Georgia Gymdogs make their thirty-first appearance in the NCAA Championships Friday night at the Fort Worth Convention Center Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. The Dawgs are seeded 10

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in the 12 team field and will compete in Saturday’s afternoon semi-final session against number 2 Florida, number 3 Utah, number 6 Michigan, number 7 UCLA, and number 11 Stanford. The top three finishers in the two semi-final sessions will advance to “Super Six” finals competition Saturday.

The individual championships are Sunday. The top four competitors from each semifinal in each event (plus ties) from the preliminary team and all-around competition will compete in the individual event finals.

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The Bulldogs are hot at the right time, earning their place in the Championships with their second-highest score of the season – a 197.025 – to win the NCAA Berkeley Regional on April 4. The Gymdogs had the high team score on bars (49.325) and beam (48.950) to go along with a 49.4 on vault and a 49.35 on floor. Utah finished second with a 196.575. It was the 24th NCAA Regional title in program history and the third in the last four years.

With Georgia peaking and this seasons success against Utah, the Dawgs number 10 seeding may belie their actual chance of reaching the finals. This year, Georgia defeated Utah twice, lost to Florida twice and fell to Michigan in the season-opener.

In any event, Georgia has seen its share of elite competition going into the Championships, having not only competed against Florida, and Utah, but also against four other teams currently ranked in the top-eight in the country: number 4 LSU, number 5 Alabama, number 6 Michigan and number 8 Auburn.

Georgia leads the country with 10 NCAA titles. The Gymdogs have finished third or better in the NCAA Championships in 21 of their last 27 appearances. The current championship format started in 1993, and UGA advanced to the Super Six each year from 1993-2009. Georgia leads all other teams nationally in number of individual NCAA champions. The Gym Dogs’ 40 is eight more than second place UCLA and 16 more than third place Alabama and Utah.

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