FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK Gloria Johnson - LSU 5-3 • Baton Rouge, La.
SEC STANDINGS
LAST WEEK'S RESULTS
Friday, February 20
Georgia at Arkansas - Fayetteville, Ark. 1) Georgia 196.925 2) Arkansas 196.725
Alabama at Florida - Gainesville, Fla. 1) Florida 196.875 2) Alabama 195.625
N. Carolina/Illinois-Chicago at LSU- Baton Rouge, La. 1) LSU 197.400 2) North Carolina 194.775 3) Illinois-Chicago 192.875
Kentucky at Auburn - Auburn, Ala. 1) Auburn 196.475 2) Kentucky 192.550
THIS WEEK IN THE SEC
Friday, February 27 Auburn at Alabama (SEC-TV) Arkansas at LSU Ball St./Illinois/UNC/W&M at Kentucky
Saturday, February 28 Florida at Georgia [ESPN2]
Sunday, March 1 Alabama at Penn State (w/ Ohio State) Kentucky at West Virginia
* SEC Meet The Auburn-Alabama meet will air 3/6 at 6:30 p.m. ET The Florida-Georgia meet will air 3/8 at 11 a.m. ET
TEAM BY TEAM NOTES
ALABAMA Crimson Tide The No. 11 ranked Alabama Gymnastics team will host the No. 5 Auburn Tigers in the fifth annual “Power of Pink” meet Friday, Feb. 27 at 7:30 p.m. at Coleman Coliseum. When Alabama faced Auburn on Jan. 9, 2009 in the Tiger's pink meet, the Crimson Tide won the meet by the smallest margin possible, .025, running its 30-year winning streak to 96-0. Alabama won the meet 195.675-195.650.This will mark the third time Auburn has participated in Alabama's “Power of Pink” meet. The two teams have faced each other in pink a total of four times coming into Friday's meet, two at each school, with UA winning each time. During the meet, a check for $185,000 will be presented to the DCH Foundation for the Alabama Gymnastics DCH Foundation Breast Cancer Fund. Over the past five years, more than $750,000 has been raised for the fund. Attendance at the first four “Power of Pink” meets has totaled nearly 60,000, including three sellouts and a school and Southeastern Conference record 15,162 in 2006.
ARKANSAS Lady Razorbacks The University of Arkansas scored its second highest team total (196.725) and set a school vault record (49.450) in a narrow miss against No. 2 Georgia in Barnhill Friday. Freshman Jaime Pisani tied her career-best with a 39.350 and became the first Razorback to win the all-around title against Georgia in program history. Arkansas had four gymnasts tie for the vault title with 9.90s and a pair, Pisani and junior Michelle Stout, tie for the floor win with 9.90s. Arkansas wraps up SEC action Friday at No. 6 LSU.
AUBURN Tigers The fifth-ranked Auburn gymnastics team defeated Kentucky 196.475-192.550 Friday night in Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum. Lindsey Puckett won her third all-around title of her senior campaign behind a 39.525 performance. Puckett matched a career-high on vault with a 9.950 and tumbled to a 9.925 on floor to match another personal best to win both events. She now has 41 titles to her name. Puckett's score on vault is the second-best in the program's history and her floor score also ranks among Auburn's best. For the second time in as many weeks, freshman Kendall Swartz claimed victory on bars. A.J. Mills, the reigning SEC Gymnast of the Week, picked up her second beam title of her senior season and finished second in all-around competition with a 39.425. A trio of gymnasts matched or set career highs as the Tigers posted the highest score of the season on vault with a 49.275. Allyson Sandusky opened the rotation by posting a 9.825 and was followed up by Kylie Shields, who matched her personal best of 9.8. Vaulting third, Voss registered a solid score of 9.825.
FLORIDA Gators Florida edged up its season-best total for the second time in a seven-day span to take the home win over then No. 8 Alabama last Friday…the Gators added 0.025 to their season-high to post a 196.875-195.625 win over the Crimson Tide…junior All-American Melanie Sinclair claimed at least a share of first or second on every event, including turning in a Florida season-best 39.55 to claim her third all-around win of the season…she posted a 9.95 to earn her fifth uneven bars title of 2009 and shared the day's vault win with teammate Maranda Smith and Alabama's Morgan Dennis and Kayla Hoffman…senior All-American Corey Hartung matched Sinclair for the high mark of the evening with her 9.95 on balance beam…it was her third beam win of 2009. The No. 6 University of Florida gymnastics team meets four-time defending NCAA champion and current No. 2 Georgia in Athens, Ga., on Feb. 28 at 4 p.m.
GEORGIA Gym Dogs Georgia regained the No. 1 position in the GymInfo rankings released on Monday. The Gym Dogs have a regional qualifying score (RQS) of 197.015 to move past Utah at 196.885. ... This is the third time Georgia has been ranked No. 1 during the 2009 campaign. ... As a team, the Gym Dogs rank No. 1 on uneven bars and balance beam, third on vault and fifth on floor exercise. ... Courtney Kupets is still ranked No. 1 in the all-around with an RQS of 39.560. Kupets is also No. 1 on bars and beam, and she is seventh on vault. ...Grace Taylor is No. 2 on beam, No. 6 on bars and No. 20 on floor. ... Tiffany Tolnay ranks eighth on bars, ninth on vault and 17th on beam. ... Marcia Newby is No. 19 on vault, while Hilary Mauro is No. 20 on beam. ... The Gym Dogs will return to action on Saturday in the SEC finale against Florida. ... With two more individual titles on Friday against Arkansas, Kupets has won 32 of the possible 40 titles this season.
KENTUCKY Gym Kats Kentucky gymnastics (2-6 overall, 0-6 Southeastern Conference) achieved a season-high 48.750 on the balance beam while facing the No. 5 Auburn Tigers (5-3, 3-2 SEC) in the Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum Friday night. UK dropped the meet to AU, 196.475-192.550, after incurring falls on floor and bars. The Cats continue to hold a 38-28 all-time series advantage over Auburn. Finishing the night, Kentucky bettered last week's season-high on the beam with a new season best of 48.750.The Wildcats hit six-for-six on the event and was again led by Hite who earned a 9.825, tying for second place. The Parkersburg, W. Va., native continues to stand at the head of the Cats' beam line-up, earning team top honors for the sixth consecutive time.
LSU Tigers The Tigers blew away their previous season-high by posting a 197.400 last Friday in a tri-meet against Illinois-Chicago and North Carolina in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. After the meet LSU shot up four spots to No. 6 in the latest rankings with a 196.250 RQS. LSU set season-highs on bars with a 49.500 and floor with a 49.475. The Tigers score on bars was the highest since March 15, 2002 when LSU posted a 49.500 on bars in a home tri-meet against Rhode Island and Centenary. Individually, the Tigers set eight career highs and tied two other career marks in the meet. In fact, the first four LSU competitors on floor broke their career-highs, and sophomore Staci Schwitkis had arguably her best meet as a Tiger. Schwitkis competed in the all-around for only the second time in her career, and she set career-highs on beam (9.825), floor (9.85) and all-around with a 39.350. Senior Ashleigh Clare-Kearney earned four individual titles to increase her career total to 104, including her 22nd all-around crown.
FIVE SEC SQUADS CURRENTLY RANKED IN TOP 10
The Southeastern Conference continues to prove itself as the nation's leading Gymnastics conference. Five of the SEC's seven squads are currently ranked in the Top 10. Georgia currently ranks No.1 in the nation. Auburn, ranked 5th, is the next highest SEC team, followed by LSU (6th), Florida (7th), Arkansas (9th) and Alabama (11th). Below is a week-by-week look at how the SEC teams rank in the nation.
UA ARK AU UF UG UK LS PreSeason 6 12 15 3 1 25 7 Week 1 6 5 4 1 8 NA 14 Week 2 9 8 6 1 4 NA 11 Week 3 9 8 6 5 1 NA 10 Week 4 9 3 5 8 3 NA 11 Week 5 5 7 6 9 3 NA 11 Week 6 8 7 5 6 2 NA 10 Week 7 11 9 5 7 1 NA 6
Team Rankings (per GymInfo) 2009 Team Rankings (Feb. 23)
Rank Team Name Average High 1. Georgia, U. of 197.015 196.594 2. Utah, U. of 196.885 196.831 3. Stanford Univ. 196.590 196.529 4. UCLA 196.340 196.414 5. Auburn Univ. 196.260 196.212 6. L.S.U. 196.250 195.966 7. Florida, U. of 196.220 196.271 8. Oregon State 196.215 195.856 9. Arkansas, U. of 196.210 196.100 10. Oklahoma, U. of 196.105 196.111 11. Alabama, U. of 196.010 196.100 12. Nebraska, U. of 195.465 195.554 13. Missouri, U. of 195.430 195.500 14. Michigan, U. of 195.345 194.959 15. Illinois-Champaign 195.215 195.141 16. Arizona, U. of 194.930 194.769 17. Penn State 194.900 195.068 18. Minnesota, U. of 194.755 194.425 19. Ohio State Univ. 194.725 194.732 20. West Virginia 194.630 194.643 21. Iowa, U. of 194.525 194.162 22. Iowa State 194.500 194.337 23. Michigan State 194.410 194.182 24. Washington, U. of 194.330 194.314 25. Maryland 194.325 193.587