Florida Gators Win SEC Gymnastics Meet

In a meet which featured at least three Olympic gymnasts: British national Marissa King (pictured bottom) and American Bridget Sloan (pictured top) of Florida and Canadian Brittany Rogers of Georgia, the Florida Gators prevailed at the SEC Conference Championships in North Little Rock, Ark., last weekend.

The Gators won its ninth SEC title and a second consecutive title as the team prepares to host regionals. Florida, also the nation's number one team, has had a history of disappointing and agonizingly close second place finishes at nationals, making them arguably the most successful women's gymnastics program to never win a NCAA title.

But, Sloan, who tied LSU gymnast Rheagan Courville for first-place in the all-around with a 39.725, helped the Gators edge out two-time defending national champion Alabama (197.8), LSU (197.7) and Georgia (197.325).

The Gators started off awkwardly on vault in the eight-team meet, but the team recouped thanks to strong scores from Sloan, King and Mackenzie Caquatto. The momentum continued as Sloan won balance beam with a 9.925.

The floor event in the last rotation sealed the victory for Florida with powerful routines from Sloan, Kytra Hunter, Randy Stageberg and Kierstan Wang.

Only four schools have ever won titles in NCAA women's gymnastics: Alabama, Georgia, UCLA and Utah though several teams besides Florida have come close, including Oklahoma, Nebraska and Michigan.

The Florida Gators mascots (pictured middle) are named Albert and Alberta.

Catholicism by the Numbers

With images above of a Catholic church in Russia and a sheep in Uzbekistan, here is a look at the numbers of Catholicism in countries where they are minorities.

Though I am not a Catholic myself, I thought with the new coronation of Pope Francis I of Argentina and Easter Sunday occurring tomorrow that this would be a subject of interest:

Azerbaijan 400

India 19.9 million

Israel 100,000

Japan 509,000

Kazakhstan 250,000

Russia 750,000

Uzbekistan 5,000

http://www.catholic.org

German Soocer Scores (from weekend from March 15-17)

Turkish national Nuri Sahin (pictured) had a proverbial good day at the office as he helped his team Dortmund score a 5-1 win over the struggling SC Freiburg, thanks in large part to two goals from Sahin.

FC Nuremberg beat an star-filled FC Shalke 04 team 3-0 with goals from three German futbolers Markus Feulner, Alexander Esswein and Mike Frantz.

Meanwhile the league leading Bayern Munich scored a 2-1 win over rival Bayer Leverkusen due to an unexpected late on-goal from Leverkusen.

Bayern Munich has a comfortable 20-point lead over second place Dortmund and a 24-point lead over third place Leverkusen.

This weekend, Match Day 27 in the Bundesliga will see Bayern Munich will face Hamburg SV which fell to FC Augsburg 1-0 in their last match.

Here is a look at the scoreboard:

Dortmund 5 SC Freiburg 1

VL Wolfsburg 1 Fortuna Dusseldorf 1, tie

1899 Hoffenheim 0 FSV Mainz 05 0, tie

FC Nuremberg 3 FC Shalke 0

FC Augsburg 1 Hamburg SV 0

Bayern Munich 2 Bayer Leverkusen 1

SV Wereder Bremen 2 Grewth Fruth 2, tie

VB Stuggart 2 Eintracht Frankfurt 1

Borrusia Monchengladblach 1 Hannover 0

http://www.bundesliga.com/en/

http://www.fcbayern.telekom.de/en

http://www.dw.de

French Soccer Results (from weekend of March 15-17)

In French futbol, Paris St. Germain is the hot team right now as they get ready for the daunting task of facing Spanish soccer power Barcelona FC in the next round of the UEFA Champions League. But, domestically, the team hit a bit of a snag during the weekend of March 15-17 when they tied Saint-Etienne 2-2. PSG had an early goal Argentinian national Javier Pastore (9th min.)

In other league games, Djamel Bakar (pictured here) helped his team Nancy-Lorraine to a 1-0 win over OGC Nice with a goal in the 23rd minute.

A lone goal from Mohamed Fofana (32nd min.) also gave Stad de Reins a 1-0 victory over Stade Bertois 29.

In the process of putting this entry together, we found that PSG has a Brazilian named Alex, but he is not the same Brazilian soccer player Alex who up until this season was with Fenerbahce in the Turkish Premiere League.

In case, you are wondering, the below image is of French comic book icon Asterix.

Here are the results in the French League, which include two lop-sided scores:


Olympique de Marseille 0 AC Ajaccio 0, tie

FC Lorent 4 Stade Berstois 0

SC Bastia 4 Olympique Lyonnais 1

Evian 2 LOSC Lille 1

Montpellier Herault 1 ESTAC Troyes 1, tie

Sochaux-Montbeliard 1 Valenciennes 1, tie

Stad de Reims 1 Stade Rennais 0

Nancy-Lorraine 1 OGC Nice 0

Toulouse 0 Girandis de Bordeaux 0, tie

PSG 2 Saint-Etienne 2, tie
http://www.ligue1.com

Huey Lewis and the News Will Be on Jimmy Kimmel Live

A few weeks back we saw an ad for Wolftrap, a concert venue in Vienna, Va., just outside of Washington, DC, which listed Huey Lewis and the News' Aug. 13, 2013, concert as one of its summer highlights. Perhaps, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who hails from San Francisco where the band is from and Eric Cantor (R-Va) can set aside partisan differences and attend the show together....well, may be in a parallel comic book universe.

As it also turns out, the band which became famous thanks to the multi-hit album "Sports," featuring "Heart of Rock and Roll," "I Wanna New Drug" and "Heart and Soul" that turns 30 this year, is starting their tour much sooner than in August.

Huey Lewis and the News will also appear on the ABC late night show "Jimmy Kimmel Live."

Here are the dates:

May 10 New Brusnwick, NJ

May 13 New York, NY

May 15 Jimmy Kimmel Live!

May 16 St. Ynez, Calif.

May 17 Cabazon, Calif.

May 18 Chandler, Ariz.

Later Dates:

Aug. 13 Vienna, Va. Wolftrap

http://hueylewis.com

http://www.wolftrap.org

Vintage Harvey Comics Covers_Casper the Friendly Ghost #99

Since Free Comic Day will be celebrated here in America and perhaps around the world on Sat., May 4th, 2013, at places like Acme Comics in Greensboro, NC*, we thought we'd post this cover of "Casper the Friendly Ghost" #99 which came out in (to our knowledge) 1966. Assuredly, it's worth more than 12 Cents now!

*- We just found that there is an Acme Comics in Peoria, Ill., as well. We presume this is just a coincidence.

http://www.acmecomics.com

http://www.acmecomicspeoria.com

More College Nicknames- Dukes, Bluejays and Anteaters

Here is our follow-up from yesterday's entry on college nicknames. Perhaps even long-time ESPN college basketball commentator Dick Vitale doesn't know a few of the more obscure ones:

More Smart Schools:

1. California Golden Bears (Cal; Pac-12)*
2. Brown Bears (R.I.; Ivy)
3. Lafayette Leopards (Pa, Patriot League)
4. JMU Dukes (Va; Colonial- pictured top)*

More Angry Birds:

5. Louisville Cardinals (Ky; Big East)*
6. Creighton Bluejays  (Neb.; Missouri Valley)*
7. Illinois State Redbirds (Ill.; Missouri Valley)
8. Kansas Jayhawks (Kan.; Big-12-pictured center)*

Canines and Foxes

9. The Citadel Bulldogs (SC, Southern Con.)
10. Boston University Terriers (Mass., America East)
11. Georgetown Hoyas (Wash. D.C.; Big East- pictured bottom, that is Patrick Ewings' jersey)
12. Marist Red Foxes (New York, Metro-Atlantic)

Best of the Rest

13. UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos (Calif.; Big West)
14. Campbell Fighting Camels (NC; Big South)
15.DePaul Blue Demons (Ill.; Big East)
16. Mississippi Valley Delta Devils (Ms., SWAC)
17. UC-Irvine Anteaters (Calif.' Big West)