Consider the revitalization of Georgia’s gymnastics program officially on its way.
The esteemed program that has suffered through some tumultuous times in recent years, is back in the hunt for the NCAA title after advancing to Saturday’s NCAA Championship final round.
Georgia posted a 197.15 in Friday’s preliminary competition held at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion to advance along with SEC foes Florida (197.775) and LSU (197.325).
Minnesota (196.375), Illinois (195.7) and Stanford (194.7) competed in Georgia’s session, but failed to advance.
While the Gym Dogs’ resurgence probably won’t be complete in the minds of some followers until it starts winning NCAA titles again with the regularity it enjoyed under previous coach Suzanne Yoculan, just being among the teams to qualify for the finals is an achievement for Georgia under first-year coach Danna Durante.
Durante, the former coach at California, was named Georgia’s head coach in May when Jay Clark resigned.
Many expected Yoculan’s former assistant to continue her success, but instead the program took a dramatic dip, failing to qualify for the NCAAs in 2010, placing ninth in 2011 and finishing a disappointing 11th in 2012.
His departure marked a turning point for the program in many ways, gymnast Shayla Worley said.
“The coaching change wasn’t foreseen at all, and the extreme adversity tested the leadership and characteristic of our team,” she said. “When you are faced with that, you have two choices, to roll over and play dead and use a million excuses on why you didn’t do well or forget about it and rise to the occasion and use it to get stronger, and that is what we have done.”
The hard times certainly appeared over as Georgia competed with newfound confidence and determination Friday.
If there were any doubts Georgia was good enough to be back in the hunt, they put them aside with their opening rotation.
Georgia opened with a 49.5 on the uneven bars, with Chelsea Davis leading the way with a 9.95. Christa Tanella, Brandie Jay and Brittany Rogers all had 9.9s to help UGA earn its second highest score of the year.
The mark was the second highest on the event, with top-ranked Florida being the only team to beat it, with a 49.525.
“In the last few meets we’ve started off slow, and we’ve been focusing on having a strong start,” Worley said. “That is exactly what we did. We had a lot of high energy, and we had to take that down a notch for beam because you don’t want to be all jacked up on beam, but it was a good start for us.”
UGA has certainly had its share of ups and downs on the beam this season. Georgia struggled to break the 49.0 mark earlier, with five of their first eight appearances earning only in the 48.0-to-49.0 range. However, Georgia seemed to find its solid ground on the thin apparatus late in the season, scoring over 49.0 in its past six meets on beam.
Still, the pressure of conquering the beam in the NCAAs is a different animal altogether and one that has doomed recent UGA teams.
On Friday, the Gym Dogs didn’t light up the scoreboard, but were efficient enough to manage a 48.975, a respectable score they earned without any falls.
The score was good enough to put Georgia in second place at the halfway mark with a 98.475. Florida led with a 98.775, and LSU was third with a 98.35.
LSU overtook Georgia for second when it earned a 49.5 on vault.
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