After a close race to the finish, top-ranked Utah barely edged the Georgia gymnastics by a mere two tenths in Salt Lake City on Friday night.

Although the meet didn’t turn out the way the Gym Dogs had hoped, they still posted their second-highest team score of the season with a 196.950 to Utah’s 197.150.

“I was very proud of our attitude and our grit,” Gym Dogs head coach Jay Clark told Georgia Sports Communications. “We had some mistakes and I think both teams were a little tight because it was such a high-profile meet. I think we let that get to us early on. This score will help us down the line, and to be able to go close to 197 on the road certainly helps. We have to continue to grow. Still, you’re never happy with a loss, so we’ll lick our wounds for a day or two.”

KAT DING

It was predicted to be a tight competition from the get-go, and the results after the first rotation proved that to be true.

Beginning on bars, the No. 4 Gym Dogs (3-2) started the meet off strong by posting a 9.9 and a 9.925 from Georgia seniors Gina Nuccio and Kat Ding, respectively.

Utah (3-1) countered with 49.225 to start their night on vault after freshman Georgia Dabritz scored a 9.925 for her stuck Yurchenko 1.5 to close out the rotation.

After one event, the Gym Dogs led by only .05 as they headed to vault.

The Gym Dogs were able to overcame a low score from junior Noel Couch to post a 9.9 from Ding for her stuck vault.

However, as Georgia excelled on the vault, the Utes equaled Georgia’s attempt and posted a 49.25 on the uneven bars paced by senior Stephanie McAllister’s 9.9.

McAllister’s 9.9 as well as Utah’s other four scores of 9.825 or above, pushed the home team ahead of Georgia after two by the smallest of margin possible in college gymnastics — a quarter of a tenth.

Moving onto the second half of the meet, the Utes would be competing on beam and floor, events where they rank No. 1 in both.

The Gym Dogs started off their third rotation of the night on floor, where the team had struggled early in the season.

And those troubles reappeared on floor on Friday night when junior Shayla Worley only managed to post an 8.6 after falling twice.

Worley’s low score meant the last three up in the Georgia line-up had to hit to stay within reach of the No. 1 team.

And that they did, as junior Christa Tanella and Nuccio both hit solid routines for scores of 9.825 and 9.875, respectively.

But the big boost came from Couch, who posted a career-high 9.95 to close out the rotation for the Gym Dogs and push the team into the lead by a tenth with one event left.

Noteworthy from Utah in its third rotation on beam was sophomore Corrie Lothrop’s event-winning 9.9 to close out Utah’s subpar beam rotation.

In the final rotation, the Gym Dogs had to show the crowd of 15,000 fans in the Huntsman Center that they deserved to be the No. 2 beam team in the country.

And for the most part, they did just that as they totaled a 49.2 on the event, led by Worley, who came back from a missed floor routine to post a 9.9.

However, it wasn’t enough to stop the momentum that Utah was steadily gaining on floor as it posted hit routine after hit routine to finish off the night with a huge 49.5 led by Lothrop and McAllister’s 9.95s.

At the end of the night, it was a hard, close fight for both teams, but the team from Salt Lake City eventually pulled out the win to push the overall record between the teams from 24-21-1 to 24-22-1, with the Gym Dogs still holding the slight edge.

The Gym Dogs will come back to Stegeman Coliseum on Feb. 10 at 7:30 p.m. to face No. 2 Arkansas in just their third home meet of the season.