After struggling with injuries all last season, the Georgia gymnastics team finally seems to be healthy.

Sophomore and Athens-native Lindsay Cheek — out with back spasms for the first part of the season — is “getting close” to being ready to compete.

“We saw a vault out of her yesterday that looked like the one she did at nationals,” Georgia head coach Jay Clark said. “She still looked a little sluggish to me on beam [during her exhibition routine], but we’re working through some of that.”

LINDSEY CHEEK

Clark says that Cheek’s vault will be a “nice shot in the arm” because they don’t have many healthy bodies able to compete on the event.

However, that’s not the case on beam, where the Gym Dogs have 11-plus girls that are “competition ready.”

“We’ve got so much depth right now on beam,” Clark said. “Laura Moffatt can do a routine, Whitney Kirby can do a routine, Kati Breazeal can do a routine, Lindsay Cheek can do a routine, and Christa was out tonight of the beam line up, so we have 11 kids that really can go up there on that event and there wouldn’t be that much of a scoring difference.”

Competing for 10 weeks straight is hard not only on the body, but also the mind, so as Clark starts to rest some the regulars, fans may begin to see some new faces out on the competition floor.

If this happens, it would be the first time we see the likes of freshman Whitney Kirby, who only competed routines at the Sneak Peek back in December.

Sophomore Laura Moffatt and junior Kati Breazeal also haven’t seen competition yet this year, but have performed well-executed exhibition routines to gain some experience, and they may get to put their routines on display in the next couple of weeks, as the Gym Dogs take on No. 1 Utah on Feb. 3 and then come home to face No. 2 Arkansas on Feb. 10.