Sophomore Gym Dog Cassidy McComb was the SEC’s Freshman of the Year in 2008, and though she’s struggled at times this season, coach Suzanne Yoculan said there are no thoughts of a sophomore slump.

“Because of the fact that she had to spend all fall getting back into gymnastics condition, it’s just gotten her a little bit behind,” Yoculan said. “But she’s not as far behind as she thinks she is.”

After scoring three 9.9s in last year’s Super Six to help the Gym Dogs capture their fourth-straight national championship, McComb has yet to chart a 9.9 this season. But it’s more from trying to go for bigger scores than for lack of effort, Yoculan said.

“We’ve been trying really hard to get her confidence up, to get her in consistent routines, but she wanted to do harder skills, she wants to push herself to do more difficulty,” she said.

In fact, McComb actually has added more difficulty to both her vault and her tumbling on floor since the N.C. State meet two weeks ago. She has the skills, but after not working out all summer, McComb had to spend the majority of her time in the fall getting back into shape.

“She had to spend the fall doing the basics,” Yoculan said. “She had to spend the fall running, conditioning, getting her strength back, getting her speed back, getting her explosiveness back.”

McComb, a native of Henderson, Nev., has been consistently charting scores around 9.85, but, as she grows more used to more difficult skills, she will look to get her championship form back.

“I actually made most of my hard stuff and fell on stupid mistakes,” McComb said. “So it was actually more positive, the stuff that I did hit.”

Senior, sophomore Gym Dogs prepare to compete in all-around this week

Senior Tiffany Tolnay, who has been week-to-week this season, will compete in the all-around again this week, Yoculan said.

Tolnay also will be joined by a newcomer to the all-around lineup – sophomore Hilary Mauro.

Mauro has never competed on bars or the all-around as a Gym Dog, but typically competes on vault, beam and floor each week.

Yoculan excited meet falls on Friday the 13th instead of Valentine’s Day

The Gym Dogs’ next meet, a tri-meet with Kentucky and Centenary in Lexington, falls on Friday the 13th, but Yoculan said she’s not superstitious – she’s just looking forward to the day after.

“I’m not at all,” she said. “The only thing I know about this weekend is that it’s not on Valentine’s Day and the girls, me included, are excited that we’re not competing on Valentine’s Day and we actually have a date night when we get back.”