University of Georgia Athletics
Gymnastics Journal by Lauren Johnson
November 15, 2006 | Gymnastics
Hey everyone! This is Lauren Johnson, and I am excited to be writing on behalf of the Gym Dogs this week! I’ll take a little time to share what we’ve been up to lately. Everyone has been training hard to prepare for the start of the season. We are putting together full floor routines, and the intra squad on Thursday proved that they are looking great! You can expect to see a lot of difficult tumbling from Courtney Kupets, who is performing a beautiful double layout, and Marcia Newby and Tiffany Tolnay who are doing sky-high double Arabians. Ashley Kupets, who has just started training because of a back injury, is also doing a double Arabian in her routine! Freshman Lauren Sessler is making great progress and showing her endurance with a double tuck in her last pass, so I can easily say we have a great group of tumblers this year! Everyone on the team has an energy-filled routine, and it is so much fun for me to perform and to watch my teammates! I can predict that Audrey Bowers and Abby Stack’s routines will be crowd favorites this year. I don’t want to give anything away, so you’ll just have to come check it out sometime!
We also had a beam intra squad on Thursday. Every gymnast was rock solid. Some of the highlights were Grace Taylor, who has nearly two points extra in bonus. Courtney McCool performed her unique mount, the “McCool,” which is a running front handspring onto the beam. We will also be seeing Nikki Childs’ moonwalk on the beam again this year! As always, we can count on Katie Heenan and Kelsey Ericksen to nail their routines. Our beam routines maintain a great level of difficulty and consistency, as well!
Our vault intra squad on Friday was also successful! Some of our most exciting vaulters are Megan Dowlen and Tiffany Tolnay, who are both performing a yurchenko 1 ½ twist. It is also exciting to see the return of Paige Burns, who was injured last season. Her vault is looking great! We are also seeing great progress from freshman Christi Fortunato, who is learning a yurchenko full twist. Adrienne Dishman has recently added a half twist from her front handspring front pike, and it is beautiful! I had so much fun competing in the vault intra squad because everyone was cheering, and it made vaulting that much more fun! I can’t wait to experience the energy from a big crowd when I compete!
On Friday night, Courtney Kupets, Courtney McCool, and Grace Taylor performed in a beam exhibition at the Georgia Club. They showed the fans that gymnastics not only involves a lot of hard work, but also flexibility and strength!
We also participated in the Special Olympics 5K race on Saturday morning. Each Gym Dog was paired with a Special Olympics athlete, and we ran with them through the race. It was great to see how excited the children were to be running a race. Their smiles were so big when they crossed the finish line, and I know that everyone on the team feels proud to have helped the kids last weekend! We will also be helping them learn gymnastics throughout the year. I think we will have a great time.
To finish off the weekend with a bang, Georgia upset Auburn University’s football team! I can definitely say it was one of the more exciting games I have watched on TV! It was a great birthday present for Audrey Bowers, who spent her 21st birthday in Auburn for the game!
It is only a week until Thanksgiving break, and we have a full inner squad on Tuesday night, the 21st. I definitely feel that we are making great progress and will be ready to show everyone what we have been preparing! That’s about everything for now, so continue counting down the days until our season begins on January 6th! I can’t wait!!
GOOOO Dawgs!!
~LJ~
We also had a beam intra squad on Thursday. Every gymnast was rock solid. Some of the highlights were Grace Taylor, who has nearly two points extra in bonus. Courtney McCool performed her unique mount, the “McCool,” which is a running front handspring onto the beam. We will also be seeing Nikki Childs’ moonwalk on the beam again this year! As always, we can count on Katie Heenan and Kelsey Ericksen to nail their routines. Our beam routines maintain a great level of difficulty and consistency, as well!
Our vault intra squad on Friday was also successful! Some of our most exciting vaulters are Megan Dowlen and Tiffany Tolnay, who are both performing a yurchenko 1 ½ twist. It is also exciting to see the return of Paige Burns, who was injured last season. Her vault is looking great! We are also seeing great progress from freshman Christi Fortunato, who is learning a yurchenko full twist. Adrienne Dishman has recently added a half twist from her front handspring front pike, and it is beautiful! I had so much fun competing in the vault intra squad because everyone was cheering, and it made vaulting that much more fun! I can’t wait to experience the energy from a big crowd when I compete!
On Friday night, Courtney Kupets, Courtney McCool, and Grace Taylor performed in a beam exhibition at the Georgia Club. They showed the fans that gymnastics not only involves a lot of hard work, but also flexibility and strength!
We also participated in the Special Olympics 5K race on Saturday morning. Each Gym Dog was paired with a Special Olympics athlete, and we ran with them through the race. It was great to see how excited the children were to be running a race. Their smiles were so big when they crossed the finish line, and I know that everyone on the team feels proud to have helped the kids last weekend! We will also be helping them learn gymnastics throughout the year. I think we will have a great time.
To finish off the weekend with a bang, Georgia upset Auburn University’s football team! I can definitely say it was one of the more exciting games I have watched on TV! It was a great birthday present for Audrey Bowers, who spent her 21st birthday in Auburn for the game!
It is only a week until Thanksgiving break, and we have a full inner squad on Tuesday night, the 21st. I definitely feel that we are making great progress and will be ready to show everyone what we have been preparing! That’s about everything for now, so continue counting down the days until our season begins on January 6th! I can’t wait!!
GOOOO Dawgs!!
~LJ~
Georgia Gymnastics Pre NCAAs Presser - Co-Head Coaches Cécile Canqueteau-Landi and Ryan Roberts
Tuesday, April 14
Georgia Gymnastics Pre NCAAs Presser - Nyla Aquino and Ady Wahl
Tuesday, April 14
GymDogs Punch Ticket to Nationals
Sunday, April 05
Gym NCAA Regional - Nyla Aquino - Floor
Thursday, April 02