ATHENS, Ga. --- The University of Georgia gymnastics team travels to Lexington for a tri-meet against Kentucky, Central Michigan, and Illinois on Friday, February 4 at Memorial Coliseum.  The competition is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

In the quad-meet format, Georgia will begin competition on the floor, before moving to vault and bars, and finishing on beam. 

GYMDOGS EARN THREE EVENT TITLES AGAINST LSU

Georgia gymnasts earned three of four event titles against LSU.  Seniors Rachel Baumann, Rachael Lukacs, and Megan Roberts earned the top three scores of the meet on vault with Baumann taking home the title. She also earned the highest score of the night on beam (9.925) and junior Soraya Hawthorne tumbled to a meet-best 9.900 on the floor.

PERFECT 10 FOR RACHEL BAUMANN

Senior Rachel Baumann earned a Perfect 10 on the floor against Florida. It marked the first Perfect 10 by a GymDog since Marissa Oakley earned the score on bars at the 2019 Athens Regional.

Georgia’s last three Perfect 10s on the floor were all against Florida (Sydney Snead in 2018 and Courtney Kupets in 2009).

COURTNEY KUPETS CARTER EXPECTING BABY No. 4

Head coach Courtney Kupets Carter and her husband Chris are expecting their fourth child in July.  The couple has two daughters, Brooklyn (6) and Savannah (3), and a son Bentley (4). 

GYMDOGS IN THE RANKINGS

In week four, Megan Roberts ranks as the 12th best vaulter in the country and Soraya Hawthorne is ranked 19th on the floor. 

In week three of the season (after two meets for Georgia), senior Rachel Baumann was tied as the best gymnast in the country on the floor. Junior Soraya Hawthorne ranked 18th.  On vault, senior Megan Roberts ranked as the sixth-best vaulter.

FORMER GYMDOG JOINS TEAM IN NEW ROLE

Former GymDog Cat Hires has joined the Georgia Gymnastics staff as Director of Operations. As a GymDog she competed for vault, bars, and floor, earning career-highs of 9.925, 9.950, and 9.900, on each event respectively.  She was a second-team NCAA All-American on the floor as a senior in 2014.  She was named to the SEC Community Service Team and earned SEC Academic Honor Roll recognition. She also earned the team’s Suzanne Yoculan No Dream Too Big Award.

RACHAEL LUKACS TEARS ACHILLES

Senior Rachael Lukacs announced on Instagram that she tore her Achilles during her floor routine in Georgia’s meet against LSU, thus ending her gymnastics career. 

FACING COVID CHALLENGES EARLY 

The GymDogs had to postpone meets two and three- at Kentucky and home against Iowa- due to COVID protocols within the program. The rescheduled date for Kentucky is February 4 in Lexington, the Iowa meet has yet to be determined.

COMPETING NEW SKILLS 

Haley de Jong is competing for a round-off, back handspring, back layout 3/1 in the first pass of her floor routine.  She competed in this skill prior to coming to Georgia, but this is the first season she is competing as a GymDog.

STEPPING UP FOR THE TEAM 

Prior to this season, senior Abbey Ward had only competed in bars twice in her collegiate career.  When she saw the lack of depth on the event, she stepped up and consistently trained the event so that she would be ready to compete for the GymDogs. 

HAWTHORNE CONTINUES THE MOONWALK

Junior Soraya Hawthorne assumed the responsibility of taking over the Georgia moonwalk tradition on beam as a sophomore and debuted the move at LSU in 2021. She is the seventh GymDog to perform the moonwalk on the balance beam, following Nikki Childs, Cassidy McComb, Lindsey Cheek, Mary Beth Box, Morgan Reynolds, and Sabrina Vega.

FOLLOW THE GYM DOGS
For all the latest on Georgia gymnastics, follow the team on Twitter (@UGAGymnastics), Instagram (ugagymnastics), Facebook (Georgia Gymnastics), and keep checking in to georgiadogs.com.