Gym Dogs head coach Jay Clark can finally relax on a Saturday.

The Georgia gymnastics team returned home after a grueling three-week road trip and had its best meet of the season Friday night, notching a 197.20-195.55 victory over Kentucky in a sold out Stegeman Coliseum to snap its longest losing streak since 2005.

Senior Courtney McCool (right) celebrates with freshman Shayla Worley after Worley scored a 9.95 on her floor routine. Photo by ASHLEY STRICKLAND

“I don’t think there’s any question about it, this is our best meet all year,” he said. “It’s the first time we didn’t have to count a fall or some sort of major mistake — or two major mistakes. All week we talked about coming home and needing to be at home in front of our fans and to really embrace that and feed off of that and use that and build off of that, and we did that.”

The Gym Dogs (2-3, 1-2 Southeastern Conference) fed off their home crowd all night, as they scored 49.4 or higher on three of the four rotations and saw eight scores of 9.9 or higher.

“It felt so amazing,” said senior Courtney McCool. “We mirrored what we did in the gym [Thursday] and that is exactly what we want to do. We are Georgia, and that’s exactly what we did. We rallied yesterday, the entire week we rallied — from the bus from Auburn to the gym and it showed.

“Oh God, we just killed it. We blew it up and it felt so good. So good. Mmm, mmm good.”

Georgia opened the meet strong on the vault scoring a 48.95, their lowest rotation score of the night. Junior Cassidy McComb led Georgia with a 9.85, followed closely by sophomores Kat Ding (9.825) and Gina Nuccio (9.8). Scoring was a bit questionable as three Georgia gymnasts had judging scores separated by .10 of a point of more.

“It was huge,” McComb said of the team’s start. “We still didn’t get the score we thought we were going to get, but we needed that momentum right from the beginning to keep building and building and building and that was huge for us.”

Georgia then blew away the uneven bars, posting a 49.45, its highest score on any rotation this season. Kat Ding electrified the crowd with a near-perfect 9.975 as she earned a perfect 10 from one judge and a 9.95 from the other. Two other Gym Dogs — Nuccio and McCool earned 9.9’s and freshman Shayla Worley earned a 9.85.

The high scores continued on the balance beam — statistically the Gym Dogs strongest event this season — as Grace Taylor (9.95), Worley (9.925) and Hilary Mauro (9.9) each topped the 9.9 plateau.

The came Georgia’s one-time “nemesis” — the floor exercise. The Gym Dogs ranked No. 21 nationally in the event, are sure to see their ranking skyrocket after posting another 49.4 for the rotation.

Worley, who competed in — and won — the all-around competition first the first time in her young career, performed a stunning routine that earned a 10 from one judge, and an overall score of 9.95. McCool then equaled her teammate’s score with a 9.95 of her own, as she earned a standing ovation from an appreciative home crowd.

“We’ve have had great days [in practice] during the week then in the meets it became the hardest thing to show up on,” McCool said of the floor routine. “I think those days really showed tonight and everybody came into their own. Gina Nuccio, second time out on floor killed it, Shayla Worley, a 9.95 and 10’s everywhere in the stands. That is Shayla Worley.”

It had been a long road trip for the Gym Dogs, one in which saw them lose three meets in a row, and they were ecstatic beyond words to be back home.

“It makes me almost want to cry because I missed it so much,” Taylor said. “This is just a completely different experience because people like us. The past three weeks we have crowds this big or bigger cheering against us so it was incredible.”

TEAM RESULTS

1. Georgia – 197.200 (VT- 48.950, UB- 49.450, BB- 49.400, FX- 49.400)

2. Kentucky – 195.550 (VT- 49.150, UB- 48.925, BB- 48.650, FX- 48.825)

Individual Results (Georgia competitors)

Vault: Noel Couch – 9.700, Lauren Sessler – 9.700, Cassidy McComb – 9.850, Gina Nuccio – 9.800, Shayla Worley – 9.775, Kat Ding – 9.825

Bars: Cassidy McComb – 9.600, Gina Nuccio – 9.900, Kat Ding – 9.975, Shayla Worley – 9.850, Marcia Newby – 9.825, Courtney McCool – 9.900

Beam: Cassidy McComb – 9.825, Hilary Mauro – 9.900, Kat Ding – 9.325, Shayla Worley – 9.925, Grace Taylor – 9.950, Courtney McCool – 9.800

Floor: Noel Couch – 9.750, Hilary Mauro – 9.825, Cassidy McComb – 9.825, Gina Nuccio – 9.850, Shayla Worley – 9.950, Courtney McCool – 9.950