Sports

The Gym Dogs celebrate their 5th Straight National Title and record 10th National Championship in school history on Friday night

Wow, what a weekend. It started on Friday night on the campus of the University of Nebraska with the Gym Dogs sending Coach Yoculan into retirement in perfect fashion and ended on Sunday as the Men’s Golf team won its first SEC title since 2006.

Senior Courtney Kupets, who won her third all-around title on Thursday, led the the dogs on Friday with a career-best four-event score of 39.9 with two 10.0s  (on the bars and vault)  and two 9.95s (on beam and floor). Georgia scored a 197.825, its second-best score of the year, to outdistance second-place Alabama’s 197.575 and third-place Utah’s 197.425.

The victory was 10th title in school history (all of which have since 1987) and breaks the tie with Utah for most all-time. This kind of dominance is truly remarkable and as I alluded to before in another post, these girls do not get the love on campus that they deserve. What they have achieved will certainly not be forgotten, but I will urge each and everyone of you reading this that have never been to a Gym Dogs meet to put it on your to-do list before you graduate.

Now believe it or not, the Gym Dogs were not the only team to hoist a championship trophy in the air. On Saturday, the Equestrian team won its fourth National Championship in school history and second straight in Waco, Texas. Now much like gymnastics, I will honestly admit that I do not know a clue about this sport, but again any time you win a National Championship you deserve some love for representing the University so well. Congrats.

Also on Saturday, the #4 Men’s Tennis team won the SEC East by defeating #6 Tennessee 5-2 in front of a season-high crowd of 1,060. The victory over the Volunteers extended the team’s home winning streak to 60 straight matches, absolutely amazing.

In Knoxville, the #2 Women’s Tennis team also beat #13 Tennessee 5-2 to clinch the SEC East and outright SEC regular season titles. With the SEC Tournament for both teams starting Thursday, both teams will have a chance to bring home SEC Tournament trophies as well.

On the diamond, both the baseball and softball teams had great weekends. The #1 baseball team took two out of three games against #5 Arkansas, including back-to-back bottom of the 9th winning 4-3 scores on Friday and Saturday night. Junior OF Matt Cerione was the hero this weekend, ironically having the game-winning hit in both those games.

The #6 softball team had a 3-game road sweep over Auburn, improving their overall record to a remarkable 33-8 (including 14-6 in SEC play).  The Diamond Dogs are now  a combined 64-16 this year an astonishing .800 winning percentage. With both of their regular seasons down to just a few weeks left, again I urge you readers to check these two Top 10 teams out.

Last, but certainly not least, on Sunday the #1 Men’s Golf team won its 27th SEC championship in school history. The #14 Women’s team finished 6th against some stiff competition competing against five other Top 25 teams. Both teams have had great years and will continue them into the regionals (the women’s regionals start on May 7th and the men’s will begin on the following week). We will certainly keep those of you interested posted on how the two teams wrap up their seasons.