After a disappointing SEC Championship performance that included two falls on vault, the GymDogs bounced back with a solid performance in the NCAA Gainesville Regional. The young GymDogs didn’t quite advance to the NCAA Championships. But they did post a season-high total score of 197.425. In fact, it was Georgia’s best Regional score since 2019. It was an encouraging sign for the future after the Dawgs scrambled for much of the year just to put healthy gymnasts on the floor.
While the season may have come to an end for the rest of the GymDogs, freshman Lily Smith will be competing this week an an individual qualifier at the 2024 NCAA Gymnastics National Championship.
The Limerick, Pennsylvania native qualified to compete as an all-around competitor after compiling a 39.675 in the second round of the NCAA Gainesville Regional, winning the event title.
Smith notched her highest all-around mark of the season in Gainesville with a 9.975 on bars, a 9.950 on beam, a 9.925 on floor, and 9.825 on vault. It was a historically impressive performance, the highest all-around total by a Bulldog freshman since Courtney Kupets scored a 39.675 against Auburn in 2006.
Smith heads to Nationals ranked 20th in the country in the all-around, and earned SEC Freshman of the Year after being the highest ranked SEC freshman and 10th overall on bars with an NQS of 9.950.
Keeping Smith and the rest of the freshmen who stepped up for injured veterans this season will be among Coach Kupets-Carter’s biggest priority items this offseason. If she can, the Bulldogs may be in position to make some serious noise in the SEC next season.