Welcome to the SEC gymnastics championship, where the scores are always changing — even after the competition is done.

And so were the winners.

Jenni Girtman/AJC (ENLARGE)

Katie Heenan celebrates with her teammates after her vault performance. Georgia won its 16th SEC title, 197.350 over Alabama and Florida.

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First it was maybe Georgia. That was after their score went from a 197.2 to a 197.350 due an error by the judges.

"Four people in the scoring line told me we had won," said Georgia coach Suzanne Yoculan. "So I came into the locker room and built up the whole drama to the team, the whole staying focused and dropping momentum when we went to beam and lessons that can be learned. Then I pulled out the box of SEC T-shirts and said, 'But I believed in you and I ordered these a week ago.'"

The gymnasts started screaming. They believed they had won. They had the T-shirts to prove it.

"Five minutes later [media-relations personnel] came in and told me 'You didn't win,' " Yoculan said.

"That is not good for the heart," said senior Katie Heenan. 'It just went silent."

More than 30 minutes later, after the judges, checked and rechecked the scores because of the aforementioned scoring discrepancy, Georgia was named the winner of its 16th SEC title.

"I have never been through anything like that," Heenan said. "We were on pins and needles. We were all saying it was like they were sticking us with needles."

The tingling feeling turned slightly better after it was revealed Georgia won 197.350 over Alabama and Florida, each of which had a 197.325 in front of a record crowd of 9,022 at the Gwinnett Center Saturday.

"I have never been through a situation like that where people at the scoring table didn't even know what it was," Yoculan said. "It was crazy."

The ending, for bizarre as it was, really should have been predicted following what unfolded on the floor of the Gwinnett Arena during the competition.

Georgia, a team that is without its top talent Courtney Kupets, was up and down throughout the competition.

"Just like out season we made some mistakes but we came back, and I am excited to have this SEC title back in our hands," Heenan said.

After two events, the Gym Dogs were down, just in the spot Yoculan had told them they would be the night before.

Florida started fast and was ahead after two events. But Georgia had bars coming up. After Nikki Childs slipped on the first routine, her teammates quickly picked her up. Courtney McCool had a 9.9. Tiffany Tolnay had a 9.95 and Grace Taylor had a 9.95.

"That was national-championship form," Yoculan said.

There was national championships-like anxiety on the beam. Georgia wobbled in its last event. But not as badly as the judges said they had. Immediately after the team scores had been posted, assistant coach Jay Clark noticed Tolnay's score was incorrect.

The judges had wiped out her 9.95 on bars and used her beam score, 9.8 twice. Once that was corrected Georgia went from a 197.2 to a 197.350. Still the Gym Dogs had to wait for Florida and Alabama to finish on beam and bars respectively to found out if they had won.

Florida appeared to have it locked up until its last gymnast on beam Amanda Castillo fell for on the second time this season. Her 9.4 left the Gators .025 behind. Alabama, the team Yoculan that had won, finished with a 49.450 on vault. A 9.8 by Kassi Price was the difference there between the Tide winning and losing.

"Alabama was great tonight," Yoculan said. "They nailed it on vault and they deserved to win it."

In the end, finally, it was Georgia that won it.

In addition to the championship, Cassidy McCombs was named the SEC Freshman of the Year and Yoculan was named coach of the year.