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Gym Dogs are not alone on beam blunders
By JOSH KATZOWITZ
The Red & Black
Sixteen feet long and four feet
high. Scariest of all it’s four inches
wide, or roughly the equivalent of
the length of a Virginia Slims
cigarette.
With dimensions like these, it’s
not hard to imagine why more
than a few gymnasts had prob
lems staying affixed to the bal
ance beam last Saturday at the
Super Six Challenge.
And it’s perhaps one of the rea
sons No. 2 Georgia got smoked on
the event, falling off three times
en route to suffering its first
defeat since the 1997 national
championships.
The Gym Dogs, who were
beaten by Alabama but scored
victories against the remaining
four competing squads, weren’t
the only team to fall victim to the
long, skinny contraption.
The Top-ranked Alabama,
which won the team beam event
with a 48.375, fell twice. Nebraska
tumbled off thrice. And UCLA,
which was ranked third coming
into the meet, tasted floor five
times out of the Bruins’ six com
petitors.
’’Beam is an event more than
any other that nerves can get to
RAKHI DAI At T,„ K„,.
▲ Freshman Cassie Bair executes a beam routine that
resulted in one of three Gym Dog falls at the Super Six.
you,” said Florida coach Judi
Markell, whose team Jittered its
way to a last-place finish in the
six-way event. 'Tve been in a lot of
meets where it is the deciding fac
tor. Usually, the team that has the
steadiest nerves has a real good
chance to win."
Since the Gym Dogs must
start two freshman (for the first
time since Kim Arnold and Julie
Ballard were first-timers in 1995)
in that rotation after the loss of
Jenni Beathard, Stacey Galloway,
Karin Lichey and Sam Muhleman
to graduation, the 9,934 fans in
attendance might have played a
minor role in the inability of
Georgia to stay atop the equip
ment.
“I was a little nervous because
it was my first competition for
UGA and in front of 10,000 peo
ple,” said newcomer Cassie Bair,
who scored a 9.15. "But I don’t
think I fell because I was nervous.
I just messed up one of my
flights."
Beam coach Jackie Estes,
though, thought otherwise and
said first-meet jitters for Bair and
fellow freshman Breanna
Rutherford, who tallied a 9.00
mark after her plunge, played a
part in their respective falls.
“We had to fill four spots from
last year and it was a big meet
with lots of pressure,” Estes said.
“The beam is so mental. They
have the capabilities to do it, and
in our intrasquad meets, they've
stayed on, but this pressure meet
was a problem.”
It’s problem that the Gym
Dogs will work to correct before
they travel Friday to Gainesville,
Fla., to meet with the 1 lth-ranked
Gators.
To prepare for its second meet
ing of the young season with
Florida, the team has been work
ing this week on pressure sets,
where the coaches simulate a
tense situation in which the gym-.
nasts must complete their rou
tines and the aerial flights on the
beam.
Although the Gym Dogs will
take their 4-1 record to the
O’Connell Center where they will
perform in front of an estimated
crowd of 5-6,000 Florida fans, the
audience won’t be their only con
cern.
“They don’t just have to get
used to the crowd,” Estes said.
"You have to be able to control
your adrenaline, even though
we're going to be really fired up.”
In other gymnastics notes, sea
son student tickets for the
remaining five home meets are on
sale today and Friday from 10
a.m.-2 p.m. at the Tate Center
Information Booth and 4-8 at the
Ramsey Center Ticket Booth.
Tickets are a cash only price of
$5, and students can bring along
a limit of four other UGA Cards.
Approximately 700 tickets remain.
FOOTBALL RECRUITING
Holloway commits to
Georgia over Auburn
Georgia added another play
er to an already
strong football
recruiting
class late Wed
nesday, bring
ing in Dei rick
Holloway from
Sharpsburg. Holloway played
free safety in high school, but
the University recruited him as
a linebacker.
Holloway visited Athens way
back on Dec. 10 and was teeter
ing between Auburn and
Georgia until last night’s deci
sion. He is still scheduled to
visit Georgia Tech this week
end.
- Marc Ginsberg
Millers share AAU bid
By LINDSAY RIDDELL
The Red & Black
Editor's Note: This is the sec
ond part of a two part story.
Coco Miller sprinted down the
court with a trail of Crimson jer
seys in her wake. She stopped two
feet from the baseline, just inside
the arc, and launched a trade
mark jumper toward the basket —
a scene Georgia fans have wit
nessed countless times.
This time, Coco, who sinks 44.7
percent of her shots, hit the rim,
just in time for Alabama’s defense
to settle in for the rebound.
But over the shoulders of two
Alabama defenders, Kelly Miller
rebounded in midair, tipping the
ball back to her sister Coco.
Without taking a step from the
spot of her first shot, Coco’s sec
ond-chance bucket put the Lady
Dogs up 11-9 with 12:32 to go in
the first half of Georgia’s first con
ference win this season over the
Crimson Tide Sunday.
Their title: “The Miller Twins”
— used by fans and media more
often than their first names —
does nothing to suggest the two
distinct identities that emerge on
the basketball court.
And basketball seems to be the
one area where even an untrained
eye might be able to tell the twins
apart.
Georgia head coach Andy
Landers can put those differences
into words:
“Coco is more of an attack,
drive, pull up, stop and pump
type shooter. Kelly is a little bit
more calculating — go around, get
back up, set you up for a move
and then use it on you.
KELLY vs COCO MILLER
Currently averaging:
Points/game: 16 4 vs. 14.1
Rebounds: 4 4 vs. 3.1
Assists: 4.8 vs 4.0
Turnovers: 2.0 vs. 1.9
Steals: 2.4 vs. 1.4
Minutes: 30.8 vs. 29.0
- Lindsay Riddell
"Defensively Coco might be a
little better on the ball; Kelly
might be a little bit better away
from the ball.”
Statistical evidence also high
lights their separate strengths.
Kelly pulls in higher numbers
across the board in scoring,
rebounding, minutes, steals,
assists, blocks and steals. Coco
commits less turnovers per game
and had a 45-point game during
her freshman year to secure a new
Georgia single-game scoring
record.
However, the fact that Kelly
and Coco are twins seems to
thwart the differences in the two
players, or at least in the minds of
AAU representatives, who nomi
nated the twins for National
Athlete of the Year, giving them a
sole nomination rather than two.
“I guess Kelly might be a little
better, but it depends on which
game you watch,” said Eddie
Clinton, who is in charge of nomi
nating women basketball players
for the award.
Landers said he didn’t disagree
that Kelly might be the better
player statistically, but either
player had the potential to play
better than the other on “any
given day."
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