STUTTGART, Ark. — Scott Greer spent the last three days expecting the worst and ended up with the best possible results.

Greer and his yellow Labrador, Liza, won the Super Retriever Series at Mack's Prairie Wings and qualified for this summer's Great Outdoor Games V in Madison, Wis., July 8-11. Along with the title of SRS Champion, Greer also won the title of SportDog Team of the Year and approximately $12,000 in winnings.

And all those great things came in the most unlikely of circumstances.

"I was getting ready to pack my bags and go home about this time yesterday," Greer said.

But the stars, moon and a thousand planets must have lined up perfectly for the handler from Friendship, Tenn. Despite three sub-par runs in the opening rounds of the event, Greer held on to make it into the finals and win the event.

"Words can't express what I'm feeling," Greer said. "There was just no way I could really expect this to happen this way."

Greer and Liza started the event as the fourth seed of 75 retriever/handler teams. But after the first day, they barely survived, dropping to 21st in the quarterfinal round of 33 dogs.

It got worse in the quarterfinal.

The team was one of the first to survive the test, but had to wait until the second to last dog disqualified, allowing Greer to move into the semifinal round of 12. In that round, Greer and Liza again ran the test first and had to watch as every other handler bested their score, while top handlers like Jerry Day sank down the list.

Greer and Liza wound up qualifying in the bottom spot in the finals and again — after setting the pace with a score of 76 — and watched as the top dogs for the week slowly fell by the wayside.

"There was never a down time," Greer said. "There was never a moment when I could catch my breath and say 'I made it.'"

J. Michael Shannahan and Marley followed Greer in second in with 80 points, just one whistle away from toppling the Tennessee team. Alex Washburn and Ready were third with 114 points. Armand Fangsrud and Mahfi were fourth with 181 points and Al Davis and Bosco were fifth with 268 points. Chris Akin and Dallas finished sixth with a "Did Not Finish."

Thanks to their second-place finish, Shannahan and Marley will also earn berths in the Great Outdoor Games. Along with Greer and Liza, they will compete against 10 other dog-and-handler teams at the Great Outdoor Games, including familiar competition from the Stuttgart trials. Boomer and Chris Akin, of Jonesboro, Ark., Cody and Bill Autrey, of Bemidji, Minn., Windy and David Opseth, of Culpepper, Va., Blue and Woody Spong, of Hangerstown, Md., Nike and Jerry Day, of College Park, Ga., and Abby and Chris Akin, of Jonesboro, Ark., will also compete in July.

Four additional teams will receive invitations based on their performances in the Super Retriever Series.