The University of Florida has had an interesting string of success on the national level as of late. The school's basketball team has won back-to-back national titles and the football team has also joined in on the fun as it captured a NCAA National Championship of its own in January.
For most of the 2007 regular season, Utah has had to deal with the lingering question: Will Utah make it to the Super Six of the Nationals it is hosting? The Utes left no question that they belonged in the Super Six on Thursday night. Utah finished first in the evening session of the NCAA National Championship preliminary round with its second straight postseason score of 197.
Given Georgia's postseason injury woes, it seemed like Florida would finally be able to separate itself from its SEC rival going into Nationals. That turned out not to be the case Thursday afternoon at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City. Georgia and Florida both advanced to the Super Six along with Nebraska, but it was Georgia that got the best of Florida with a 197.
Afternoon preliminary session April 26, 2007 @ 1 p.m. No. 1 Florida Gators Regional: 197.325 RQS: 197.435 The Gators are the favorite to win the national championship this year and for good reason. Florida is the only undefeated team going into nationals, and it has clipped the 197-point mark in 11 straight meets.
Keeping in mind that I just got finished writing five stories in the lovely little gymnastics Game Guide, you'll hopefully forgive me if I ramble a bit. Being a sports writer has been a dream come true, but frankly I'm glad that Wednesday has come so I can finally take a break from the rat race for a while.
Merriam-Webster defines a drought as "a prolonged or chronic shortage or lack of something expected or desired." Maybe the U gymnastics team doesn't necessarily expect to win national championships every year, but the desire to win one grows more intense with each passing year that the Utes fall short.
Stone cold. Rock solid. Unflappable. When it comes to Nicolle Ford and her focus on beam, any of these sports clichs would do, but they don't exactly do justice to the spectacle of watching her compete. Ford's teammates call her focus "the face." The way she pounds away at the event, it seems like she has a personal vendetta against the four-inch-wide piece of gymnastics equipment.
Real Salt Lake would have liked to see a few streaks end Saturday night. Instead, its chances of pulling out three points on the road all but ended in the first 10 minutes of action. Ante Razov made history, as he became the third player in MLS history to reach the century mark in goals scored as his Chivas USA team blew RSL out, 4-0, in front of 11,253 fans at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.
Remember that Gatorade commercial in which sportscaster Keith Jackson dramatically unfolds the story of Australian Ironman athlete Chris Legh? You know, that commercial that shows Legh leading the 1997 murderous 140-mile Ironman death march in Hawaii only to have his body shut off with only 500 meters left? The one where Legh is jogging toward the finish line, and then wham, Legh gets rocked back like he just ran into a Muhammad Ali right hook at full speed? Then the commercial ends with Legh learning all about hydration at the Gatorade Institute, which helps him snap the tape at the 2004 Ironman in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
