By SCOTT HARTMAN
Staff Writer

After a dominant regular season and Southeastern Conference championship, the Gym Dogs will be the heavy favorite at Saturday’s NCAA Southeast Regional Championships at 6 p.m. in Stegeman Coliseum.

The team’s consistency this season has resulted in only one score of less than 196 – 200 is perfect – and that mark was in the first meet of the year.

The pressure of being No. 1 is something senior Kim Arnold said the team puts on itself.

"I really don’t think that we feel a lot of pressure from other teams, but we also know that if we don’t hit, we’re not going to win," she said.

Arnold, the SEC Athlete of the Year, will enter Saturday’s regional meet with the nation’s highest average score, a 9.847, on the balance beam.

Head coach Suzanne Yoculan said being mentally focused and staying relaxed will be crucial to managing any pressure.

"The most important thing for us is to continue to stay relaxed," Yoculan said. "We treat (the regional meet) like the pressure is on everybody else."

Yoculan, the SEC Coach of the Year, said this year’s team has a more blue-collar approach than last year’s squad, which finished second in regionals despite similar regular-season domination.

"I think in the past we’ve looked at things as ‘Oh, we deserve this,’" Yoculan said. "Our attitude this year is that we don’t deserve anything. We have to earn it every day in the gym."

But, season-wide domination aside, junior Jenni Beathard said Saturday’s competition will be an opportunity the Gym Dogs must seize.

"You get one shot to go out there and show your stuff," Beathard said. "It really doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past. Pressure is what you make of it."

No. 4 Florida, which played the role of spoiler at last year’s regional meet, will gun for the Gym Dogs again this year.

But the 1998 Gym Dogs said they have chosen to leave last year’s meet in the past.

"This year it’s a totally different team," Beathard said. "We have different people doing different routines this year. I don’t even think about last year anymore."

Yoculan said her team’s confidence is evident in the excited state in the gym.

"You can feel the atmosphere building," Yoculan said. "And it’s one of excitement and energy, not anxiety."