Georgia at Missouri

Recap

The Big Storyline: Both teams were able to improve over their respective first meet scores. Georgia stunned on bars, putting up a 49.475, headlined by 9.900-plus scores from Katie Finnegan, Haley De Jong, and JaFree Scott. Missouri, however, came away with the win after a stellar floor rotation. 

Implications: Georgia’s 196.475 will keep it soundly above Arkansas in the SEC rankings going into its home opener against Fisk, Ohio State, and Rutgers. Missouri’s score will put the Tigers in fighting distance of the top half of the SEC rankings, with its average being just half a tenth behind Alabama. 

Records: 196.975 is Missouri’s highest home opening score ever. 49.475 is Georgia’s highest bars score since the 2019 Athens regional. 

Preview

Current Rankings: No. 20 Georgia at No. 14 Missouri

Why You Should Clear Space on Your DVR: In many ways, Georgia and Missouri have been on opposite SEC trajectories over the past decade. While Georgia is the traditional powerhouse, it’s Missouri that will come into this meet as the favorite after a breakout 2022 season. Last year, the Tigers were able to best the Gymdogs by just over six tenths, but with a fully redesigned Georgia roster, this could end up as one of the closest SEC duals of the season. 

You Can Fast Forward, but not Through This: Missouri scored a program record 49.525 on beam in its season debut against Illinois, highlighted by 9.95s from national runner-up Sienna Schreiber and Helen Hu. For Georgia, all eyes will be on the star-studded freshman class, with JaFree Scott and Naya Howard being two of the Gymdogs’ top scorers during the Super 16 meet. Howard, Schreiber and Georgia senior Haley De Jong all had mistakes in their inaugural all-around performances of the season, but if they hit, it should be an incredibly close four-event battle.