McCool out with fractured bone in left foot

The Gym Dogs begin yet another national title defense Friday, but they will be without their reigning NCAA individual floor champion and a few other key gymnasts.

Junior Courtney McCool has a fracture in the navicular bone of her left foot. She’s expected to be able to walk without crutches within two weeks and be out of a boot two weeks later. That would put her possibly ready for the Gym Dogs’ Feb. 28 date with rival Florida.

“It’s attached, it’s good,” McCool said. “I can’t walk on it so I don’t really know how it feels yet, but I think it’s good.”

“It’s pretty much the worst bone in your foot that you can hurt because it takes a long time to heal,” head coach Suzanne Yoculan said.

On the other hand, two-time NCAA all-around champion Courtney Kupets said she has felt great as she recovers from an Achilles tear and is doing all routines at full speed and full impact.

“She’s good to go. She’s going to go all-around this weekend,” Yoculan said. “She looks super. She’s on fire. She’s on a mission.”

Marcia Newby will do floor exercise for the first time in two years on Friday against West Virginia to help fill the void left by McCool, but senior Tiffany Tolnay will be held out of floor until next week against Louisiana State.

Junior Grace Taylor, the reigning NCAA beam champion, sprained her back earlier in the week and Yoculan said Tuesday she wasn’t sure of her status for Friday.

It’s a beat up Gym Dogs squad, but McCool said whoever fills in for her, and others, better be ready.

“Everybody better have some fire under them because I’ve got a lot of fire sitting here,” she said.

Freshmen slowed down by injuries

The Gym Dogs have a high-caliber freshman class, but its impact will be scaled back, at least early on in the season.

The first-year Gym Dogs are battling their fair share of injuries like the rest of the team.

“We don’t have the freshmen strength like we were hoping we would have right now,” Yoculan said. “Amber [Trani] has the bulging disc in her back and is really not able to do much of anything. She may vault because that’s the only event she’s working right now because she doesn’t have to practice it much. Gina Nuccio was actually going to do three events this weekend but she sprained her ankle [Monday] so she won’t be competing.”

“There are a lot of emotions [going into my first collegiate meet],” Trani said. “There’s the excitement of it being the first meet, and then there’s the nerves because it’s the first meet. It’s a whole bunch of mixed emotions. But mainly excited.”