ATHENS, Ga. - And people think Michigan has a "Big House."

On Thursday night, 8,650 fans packed the Stegeman Coliseum at Georgia for the evening session of the NCAA Championships preliminaries.

Michigan's largest crowd for a home meet in Crisler Arena this season was 4,039.

And that crowd was rooting for the Wolverines, which always helps.

"We all said before coming in here that when you hear that Georgia crowd cheering, just think that everyone's cheering for you," freshman Kylee Botterman said.

The home crowd made its presence known with deafening cheers after every landing, chants of "U-G-A" and a sea of bright red T-shirts.

The Coliseum usually sells out for Georgia's home dual meets, and the vivacious student section has been nicknamed the "Gym Dog Pound." With fans waving pom-poms throughout, the stands turned into waves of red and black.

The thunderous applause was loudest during the final event, when the Gym Dogs had a first-place finish in grasp. Georgia was on the uneven bars, cruising to a Super Six bid. Right next to the bars, the Wolverines attempted to close the preliminaries with a spectacular beam performance - their only shot at earning a top-three finish. Four teams jockeyed for the second and third positions to see who would earn the right to compete in the Super Six for the championship.

Michigan needed perfection but had its third-lowest beam score of the season. No Wolverine scored above 9.800, and sophomore Jordan Sexton fell early in her routine.

The final and difficult apparatus churned up nervous energy for Michigan. Combined with the boisterous crowd, Michigan failed to earn a bid to the Super Six.

The Wolverines posted a 48.650 beam score and finished fifth overall in the preliminaries.

"We come and compete against schools like that during the year so that the kids get used to that kind of thing," Michigan coach Bev Plocki said. "It might have played a factor on beam at the end because they were already nervous."

Bruck says goodbye: It wasn't a storybook ending.

After suffering a season-ending Achilles injury at the start of last season, fifth-year senior Lindsey Bruck rehabilitated and returned for one more year. She wanted one last chance to compete alongside her Michigan teammates and one last shot at a national title.

Despite a disappointing finish at Nationals, Bruck's fairy-tale season wasn't ruined.

Thursday night's preliminaries marked her final collegiate gymnastics meet. She did not compete in the individual competition Saturday.

After the meet, Bruck got choked up as she tried to describe how much Michigan gymnastics meant to her.

"To be able to come back for my fifth year and to be able to compete was something that I didn't think was going to happen last year," said Bruck with tears in her eyes. "Just to . be part of this team and to compete for Michigan has been a great experience."

The team, the team, the team: All season, the Wolverines have deflected attention from their individual performances and focused solely on the team, which many gymnasts refer to as their "family."

From the corner of Stegeman Coliseum overlooking the vault, the contingent of Michigan parents reinforced that feeling of unity.

Waving a giant sign that read, "The team, the team, the team," the Wolverine parents used legendary Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler's motto to inspire the gymnasts.

And although the family section encourages the team at meets, teammates provide the most encouragement to each other behind the scenes - from locker room signs to late-night conversations.

The bonding is evident on the mats, too. Instead of competing for themselves as individuals, they compete for each other and for Michigan.

Bruck said the inspiration comes from "just the connection, just to be out on the floor with this team . the motivation and the passion that (my teammates) have for this sport."