JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Georgia football team isn’t the only Georgia team to lose to the Florida Gators in Jacksonville, Fla., anymore.

The Georgia Gym Dogs joined the ranks of their football brethren Saturday as they finished in third place at the SEC Championships at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena Saturday behind champion Florida and runner-up Alabama.

Courtney McCool scored a 9.8 on the beam Saturday night for the Gym Dogs at the SEC Championships. Photo by DANIEL SHIREY

Georgia opened the meet strong, holding a sizeable cushion after completing its’ second event and headed into a bye for the fifth rotation. For its last two rotations, it was competing on the uneven bars and balance beam, its two strongest events this season.

“We were easily in a position to win this thing,” Georgia head coach Jay Clark said. “We had to be average on our best two events. I don’t know how to explain it because we were very loose, the kids were competing freely and we had a lot of confidence.”

But when the Gym Dogs returned to competition on the bars, it appeared all the inaction had affected them. Junior Cassidy McComb opened with a 9.675 and senior Marcia Newby had a season-low 9.5. Were it not for SEC bars champion, sophomore Kat Ding’s 9.925, things could have turned into a complete disaster.

“I don’t know what happened,” senior Courtney McCool said. “We felt relaxed and felt good and when we went up there we were tight. I don’t know what it was but there was some amazing fight up there [after bars] and that is something to said for that rotation.”

Heading into the final rotation, Georgia trailed the Gators 147.65-147.60 with the Gym Dogs on the balance beam and Florida on the floor.

“I’m not gonna lie, I was not excited to find out we would finish on beam when Florida was gonna finish on floor,” senior Grace Taylor said. “I was like, ‘really, really? You are going to do this to me?’ but it was just another opportunity that I realize is a gift from God to do something about later.”

Georgia needed perfection and a mistake from the hosts.

Unfortunately, it got neither.

With the large pro-Florida crowd roaring its approval of Florida’s floor routines, Georgia was forced to compete gymnastics most mental event with a constant cheering.

“Sometimes the noise can be helpful in reality because it forces them to put the blinders on,” Clark said. “Noise shouldn’t effect them. I think what we did on bars had everything to do with our mistakes on beam.”

After Hilary Mauro fell from the second position on the beam, the pressure on the rest of the lineup multiplied exponentially, which consisted of two freshmen — Noel Couch and Christa Tanella — and two seniors — McCool and Taylor.

Couch responded with a 9.85 and then gave Tanella a pep-talk that lasted for several minutes. Tanella, who had scored a career-high 9.9 on March 6, wobbled on her most difficult skill to earn a 9.8. Taylor then posted a score of 9.925 leaving all the pressure on the anchor McCool, who had come through for Georgia time and time again.

But not on this night, as several wobbles resulted in a 9.8. It would not have mattered however, as even had she earned a perfect 10, Georgia still would have fallen short of the Gators, who earned their first SEC crown since 2007.

“This feeling absolutely sucks,” McCool said. “But, we will take this day and we will build from it. This is still practice. This is championship practice. We don’t like the results, so we are going to fix our gymnastics and fix our minds and tighten those screws and go out there and show them Georgia is back. They might not be scared yet, but I hope they know they saw fight on those last two events, because we will be ready.”

McCool (floor) and Ding (bars) each won Conference championships and Mauro finished in a three-way tie for the vault championship.

Final Team Scores: Florida: 197.050, Alabama: 196.875, Georgia:
196.825, LSU: 195.750, Auburn: 195.575, Arkansas: 195.275, Kentucky:
194.8

Individual Scores: Georgia

Vault: 49.275 (Running Score: 98.575)
Noel Couch: 9.825
Lauren Sessler 9.8
Cassidy McComb 9.825
Hilary Mauro 9.9
Kat Ding 9.85
Marcia Newby: 9.875

Bars: 49.025 (Running Score: 147.6)
Cassidy McComb: 9.675
Grace Taylor: 9.8
Marcia Newby: 9.5
Gina Nuccio: 9.85
Kat Ding: 9.925
Courtney McCool: 9.775

Beam: 49.225 (Final Score: 196.825)
Cassidy McComb: 9.85
Hilary Mauro: 9.325
Noel Couch: 9.85
Christa Tanella: 9.8
Grace Taylor: 9.925
Courtney McCool: 9.8

Floor: 49.3
Noel Couch: 9. 825
Hilary Mauro: 9.85
Gina Nuccio: 9.825
Cassidy McComb: 9.825
Grace Taylor: 9.85
Courtney McCool: 9.95