Shayla Worley had never even competed in vault intersquads in practice, never mind in a meet. Until Thursday — and senior Marcia Newby’s ankles prevented her from competition.

So the freshman from Orlando, Fla., was inserted into the practice lineup and in Friday’s 197.20-195.55 win over Kentucky, found herself competing in the all-around for the first time in her young career.

Freshman Shayla Worley beams during her floor routine. Worley's career-high score of 9.95 paced the Gym Dogs in the floor exercise. Photo by ASHLEY STRICKLAND

And she didn’t disappoint, as she easily won the all-around title with a 39.500 over teammate Cassidy McComb (39.100) and Kentucky’s Andrea Mitchell (39.025).

“You’re starting to see the kid we knew we were getting when we recruited her,” said Georgia head coach Jay Clark. “When she’s healthy, she can be a huge asset for us … and she really stepped up to the plate and hit it out of the park for us.”

After a respectable 9.775 for her first career vault, then Worley set career highs in the three other events; bars, beam and floor. And it was her beam and floor scores that announced to the world that she had arrived.

Her balance beam score of 9.925 was the first score of 9.9 or higher in her career on any apparatus as she was one of three Gym Dogs to eclipse 9.9 on the beam.

The floor had been a difficulty for Worley in previous meets when she earned a 9.1 and a 9.425. But not on this night. With each artistic tumbling pass she landed, the capacity Stegeman Coliseum crowd got louder, consummated by a roar for a perfect 10 reminiscent of the days when the now-graduated Courtney Kupets competed.

Worley did earn a perfect score from one judge, and a 9.9 from the other, to give her a meet-high 9.95. And it showed her teammates just how far she has come since the fall.

“Oh my goodness,” said senior Grace Taylor. “She has come a really long way. We knew it was in her this whole time; it was just a matter of it coming out.”

Added senior Courtney McCool: “She knows what Georgia’s about and we felt it tonight and I hope tonight impacted her the way she impacted us because tonight she was a superstar. Rock star status.”

But the ever-humble Worley just wanted to give credit to her teammates.

“It feels good but it was a whole team effort and once we started rolling it was contagious and everybody felt it,” she said. “Everything is great right now. We are cloud nine to finally hit as a team. We came together and hit as a team and it shows that when we come together and hit nobody can stop us. We are unstoppable when we hit like this.”

And perhaps the talk of Georgia’s lack of a superstar will stop. Clark certainly thinks so.

“People have been saying all along that Georgia doesn’t have that big star,” he said, “but maybe you’re seeing the beginning of a star being born.”