Tag Archives: Georgia

Friday Live Blog – January 6, 2017

Friday, January 6 Scores Watch
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – [9] Georgia @ [2] LSU LINK SECN
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – [21] Kentucky @ Eastern Michigan LINK ESPN3
7:00 ET/4:00 PT – Illinois-Chicago @ Michigan State LINK BTN+
7:30 ET/4:30 PT – Arizona State @ Iowa State LINK ISU TV
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – [3] Alabama @ [1] Oklahoma LINK FSN
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – [13] Oregon State @ [8] Auburn LINK SECN+
8:00 ET/5:00 PT – [24] Illinois, Ball State @ [19] Missouri LINK SECN+
9:00 ET/6:00 PT – Utah State, TWU @ [18] Arizona LINK P12

And so it begins. The live blogging plan is to start with Georgia/LSU for the first hour, then switch major focus to Alabama/Oklahoma while also continuing Georgia/LSU and keeping a quarter of an eye on interesting routines from Oregon State/Auburn. Illinois/Missouri actually should be worthwhile too, but priorities priorities. Continue reading Friday Live Blog – January 6, 2017

Georgia 2017

Georgia conducted a public intrasquad sneak peek showcase gala preview last Friday, for which a number of videos are available here (with pertinent routines also linked through the post).

I’d characterize these scores, based on the videos I’ve seen, as normal-to-strict, which is what you want at a preseason intrasquad, for the judges to point out potential problem areas through their scores so that it’s not a surprise when your acro series doesn’t get credit in a real meet. The same routines would likely score a little better during the season, so the situation is not as dire and 195 as it might seem from these numbers, though they do highlight a few problem areas.

GEORGIA ROSTER 2017
Seniors
Ashlyn Broussard
  • Leadoff VT, weekly relatively non-terrifying BB in 2016
  • 2016 RQS: BB – 9.875, VT – 9.830
Lauren Johnson
  • Returned from injury to compete VT and a few UB routines in 2016
  • 2016 average: VT – 9.810, UB – 9.625
Morgan Reynolds
  • Returned from that weird E. coli thing compete FX in 2016
  • Competed BB in 2014-2015 and VT in 2014
  • 2016 average: FX – 9.819
  • 2015 average: FX – 9.850, BB – 9.746
Beth Roberts
  • Competed VT 8 times in 2015 for a 9.781 average
Rachel Schick
  • Weekly UB and occasional BB in 2016
  • 2016 RQS: UB – 9.855
  • 2016 average: BB – 9.604
Juniors
Jasmine Arnold
  • Has not competed a routine in first two years
Vivi Babalis
  • Staple of BB and FX lineups for first two seasons
  • 2016 RQS: FX – 9.850, BB – 9.805
Gigi Marino
  • Top returning score on VT, FX from 2016
  • 2016 RQS: FX – 9.905, VT – 9.880
Hayley Sanders
  • Competed one UB routine in 2015 for 9.700
Natalie Vaculik
  • Regular UB contributor, option on VT, heart attack on BB in 2016
  • 2016 RQS: UB – 9.850, BB – 9.810, VT – 9.755
Sophomores
Caroline Bradford
  • Did not compete in first year
Gracie Cherrey
  • Frequent UB contributor, early-season BB in 2016
  • 2016 RQS: UB – 9.795
  • 2016 average: BB – 9.269
Sydney Snead
  • Critical VT, UB, FX in 2016
  • 2016 RQS: VT – 9.880, UB – 9.870, FX – 9.850
Freshmen
Rachel Dickson
  • Michigan Elite
  • 2016 JO Nationals 3rd AA, UB champion
Jordyn Pedersen
  • Manjak’s
  • 2014 World Championship alternate
  • 2015 Canadian Nationals, 8th AA
Sabrina Vega
  • GAGE/Dynamic
  • 2011 World Championship team
  • 2011 Nationals, 5th AA

Recent History
2016 – 6th
2015 – 9th
2014 – 5th
2013 – 6th
2012 – 11th
2011 – 9th
2010 – 13th

While it’s still not likely to satisfy Georgia fans who have developed some expectations over the years, Danna Durante has stabilized the team’s results—Super Six three of the last four seasons—and restored a level of quality gymnastics (if not always a level of hitting routines, and we’ll get to beam in a minute).

Making Super Six in the final year of Brandie Jay, Mary Beth Box, and Brittany Rogers was a critical benchmark because it’s going to be quite a bit harder without them. On a couple events, the Gymdogs simply won’t be as good this year. That’s not to say we should throw the whole thing out and just quit. Georgia has plenty of serious routines, may actually end up becoming a top-4 SEC team again this year, and will remain among the compelling contenders to make Super Six, though it does not appear the most likely outcome. Continue reading Georgia 2017

Under the Lights: Suzanne Yoculan and Guests

Back in 2007, our beloved Suzanne Yoculan—or Suzie Yocks, as no one calls her but me—woke up one morning and said, “I can’t believe you think I like attention!” and invited cameras into the gym to profile her team’s preparation for the 2008 season in AFI’s #1 all-time best film ever, Under the Lights: Georgia Gymnastics. Directed by Suzanne’s hair, produced by Suzanne’s heels, it costars Suzanne Yoculan and Suzanne Yoculan.

Let’s begin.

The team opens proceedings by gathering around a giant G so that Katie Heenan can ominously threaten us that we’re about to go Under. The. Lights.

Is this like a waterboarding?

“Hey Katie, could you do another take, but this time make it 64% less Guantanamoy?”

Next, we meet Suzanne and some other nameless rabble who are here to tell us how awesome they are. They’re pretty awesome.

Suzanne’s like, “Pretty awesome???”

She gives us her best recruiting spiel about Georgia’s pedigree of champion awesomeness while surrounded by all her most comforting and supportive trophies, including what appears to be a glass foot because of the reasons.

winefoot

For…Best Performance by Heels on a Competition Floor?

Meanwhile, Jay Clark goes, “We’re the best team, we’re always going to win the national championship, and I can’t imagine anything possibly changing that ever.” Me neither. Continue reading Under the Lights: Suzanne Yoculan and Guests

2017 Freshman Preview: Georgia

As we move ever closer to the NCAA season, I’ll be spending the next month-ish looking into the 2017 freshmen on both major and minor teams and proceeding to make wild and unfounded claims about what we should expect to see from them.

We’ll begin with Georgia’s trio of newbies, Rachel Dickson, Sabrina Vega, and Jordyn Pedersen.

Here are the routines and RQS/averages Georgia returns from the 2016 season.

GEORGIA
VAULT
Marino – 9.880
Snead – 9.880
Broussard – 9.830
Johnson – 9.810
Vaculik – 9.755
BARS
Snead – 9.870
Schick – 9.855
Vaculik – 9.850
Cherrey – 9.795
Johnson – 9.625
BEAM
Broussard – 9.875
Vaculik – 9.810
Babalis – 9.805
Schick – 9.604
Cherrey – 9.269
FLOOR
Marino – 9.905
Snead – 9.850
Babalis – 9.850
Reynolds – 9.819

This year, Georgia finds itself with at least three legitimate openings on each event and must unearth at least one or two big new scores on each one. The freshmen have jobs to do. They won’t have the luxury of “oh well, it’s her first year, getting acclimated, blah blah blah.”

Rachel Dickson has the least name recognition of the three freshmen but may end up being the most important to the team….is a thing I love to say. I do it all the time. At the very least, she doesn’t suffer from the extreme level of Question Mark Syndrome that a name-brand like Sabrina Vega does. Continue reading 2017 Freshman Preview: Georgia