Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

2/5/2011 at 8:32am

Arkansas has accomplished plenty since launching its gymnastics program in 2003. Consider that the Razorbacks have finished in the Top 10 the past two seasons and made the Super Six (think of it as the gymnastics equivalent of the final weekend of college basketball season) two years ago.

Friday brought more proof the program – currently ranked No. 11 — is headed in the right direction.

Finally, the Razorbacks knocked off Georgia. Arkansas won the meet against the fourth-ranked Bulldogs, ending an 0-for-18 streak. Co-head coach Rene Cook said beating Georgia was a significant achievement for the program.

"This was a big goal of ours. Georgia was the only SEC team we had not beaten. We tried a lot of different tactics. Everything we did this week was about beating Georgia. It was nice to see them come out and compete, and be determined to succeed. We had some errors, but we worked through them."

Arkansas, which outscored the Bulldogs 195.775-195.40, won a third consecutive meet and posted a season-high score for the second week in a row.

Here’s more from the UA:

Junior All-American Jaime Pisani won the all-around and tied for the floor title. Sophomore Jordan Salsberg finished second in the all-around with a 39.175. Freshman Katherine Grable tied for the floor title.

"We really wanted to beat Georgia and we made history," Pisani said. "We really picked up the intensity in practice, and we came out and did our job."

Perhaps you’ve looked each summer at our annual list of top-performing Arkansas Razorback sports and seen gymnastics ranked high. Gymnastics ranked No. 1 in our recap of 2009-10 Razorback teams and was No. 3 in 2008-09. It's too early to call the final rankings (baseball and track still have seasons ahead of them), but don't be shocked to see another Top 3 finish for gymnastics in our annual poll.

Tagged: Mark Cook, Gymnastics, Jaime Pisani, Rene Cook, Arkansas Razorbacks, Bev Lewis, Georgia Bulldogs