COLUMBIA, Mo. — Georgia’s five-year reign as the NCAA gymnastics is officially over, and the national championships are still two weeks away.

The Gym Dogs finished tied for second place with Oregon State in the Columbia, Mo., Regional at the Hearnes Center but placed in third by .400 after the tiebreaker.

Georgia fell short in the tiebreaker, which adds all 24 routines, 235.200-234.800 because of a fall from senior stalwart Courtney McCool on the uneven bars. But it never should have come to that.

“Two weeks in a row we had to be average on bars and we weren’t,” Georgia head coach Jay Clark said. “And the crazy thing is to go back and look at all the places where the .025 was. If we didn’t have a fall we would won and those are the things that can drive you crazy and even though I know I shouldn’t do it, I know I will go through this meet 100 ways to Sunday.”

It was a shocking end of a tumultuous season for the Gym Dogs, who never in their wildest nightmares imagined not qualifying for Nationals. During the post-meet awards presentation, nearly every Gym Dog looked on the verge of tears.

“We never planned for this,” senior Marcia Newby said while wiping tears from her eyes. “It was one of those things that just happens but we have to keep our heads up and have to give the props to the other teams because they beat us tonight.”

They Gym Dogs were dealt a nearly crippling blow before the meet even began when sophomore Kat Ding injured her left ankle on the final pass of her balance beam routine during warm-ups. The SEC uneven bars champion then spent the meet on crutches and was unable to perform on the vault or bars, where she earned an All-American award as a freshman.

Georgia headed into the final rotation needing only a 49.2 on the balance beam to finish in second place and to fall .025 short and forcing the tiebreaker to be enacted.

“The adversity all along has been ourselves,” senior Grace Taylor said. “We had to fight ourselves all year and tonight. And while we didn’t surrender the fight, we didn’t win.”

An emotional McCool, was twice won meets this season as the final competitor blamed herself for the loss because of her fall from the bars.

“It’s very hard and I cant stop crying and I feel like I lost it for [Kat] because she didn’t even get a chance to compete,” she said. “That was it, it was why we lost.”

While McCool took no solace in the fact she earned a trip to Gainesville, she made a promise as her final act as a Gym Dog.

“My team, I’m going to do every minute of it for my team,” she said while fighting back tears. “It’s been a great blessing to compete with them and every minute I’m there will be for them.”

This marks the first time since 1983 Georgia did not qualify for nationals and this first time since the Super-6 was created in 1993 that it did not reach that stage.

“All I can say is that I really hurt for this team, especially the seniors because they supported us and they did everything we asked them to do,” Clark said. “They trained like champions and they looked phenomenal and they have done everything they could do for us.”

After two rotations, Georgia was in second with a 97.35, and heading for the bars. But once again their strongest event statistically failed them, as sophomore Gina Nuccio had the highest score with a 9.8.

Georgia with went to the balance beam and had an excellent chance to finish second with Taylor and McCool set to finish of the meet. But Taylor only managed a 9.8 and McCool’s 9.9 wasn’t enough.