NASHVILLE, Tenn. – That darn beam.

Georgia gymnastics finished strong at Saturday’s SEC Championships at the Sommet Center in Nashville, posting a 49.500 on bars and completing a cumulative score of 196.925.

But that was long after the Gym Dogs began the meet with two consecutive falls on balance beam, and it was too little too late to fully make up the gap created on the event, as they finished a distant second behind Alabama’s 197.300.

“I don’t know what to say,” said coach Suzanne Yoculan, named the SEC’s Coach of the Year after the meet. “I would have lost a lot of money on tonight’s meet on balance beam, that’s for sure. I thought if we had mistakes and counted falls it would be on floor exercise.”

The Gym Dogs’ draw had them beginning the meet on balance beam, a strong event for Georgia but also a focus-intensive one that can be difficult to start on. Sophomores Hilary Mauro and Cassidy McComb proved that by falling in Georgia’s first two rotation spots, forcing them to count Mauro’s 9.300.

The Gym Dogs went on to score a 48.600 on the apparatus, their lowest score on the event since falling three times against N.C. State on Jan. 30.

The four-time defending national champions went on to book a 49.500 on floor, their second highest of the season. A 49.325 on vault and a 49.500 on bars later, and the Gym Dogs were still looking up at Alabama.

“It will definitely be motivation,” Mauro said. “And I think it will only make NCAAs more exciting because what we did on beam was not even close to what we’re capable of. And how close we still were with that is just going to fuel us. We’re going to come back stronger.”

If Mauro, who hadn’t fallen in her entire Georgia career before Saturday, or McComb had managed a 9.700, the Gym Dogs would have been crowned SEC champions for the 17th time. But that said, the Gym Dogs have been in this position before – of their nine national championships, two have come without the benefit of an SEC title, most recently in 2007.

“I think we’ve won two or three national titles when we’ve lost SECs, so we’re not done, that’s for sure,” Yoculan said. “We’ve got business to take care of.”

Said senior Courtney Kupets: “It’s definitely disappointing, but I think it’s how we react now to give us momentum for the national championships . Fortunately for us the one that’s a little more important is yet to come. And we’re going to put it all out there.”

Kupets took the all-around with a 39.775 and was named the SEC’s Athlete of the Year as Georgia lost its undefeated season and slipped to 17-1 on the season.

Junior Grace Taylor, who sports a 3.97 GPA, was also dubbed the conference’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year following the meet. She too realizes there are bigger obstacles to overcome in the Gym Dogs’ near future, as NCAA Regionals being their quest for a 10th national title on April 4.

“This has happened before,” she said. “If we have to lose SECs to win nationals, and we have to learn this lesson to win nationals, it’s worth it.”