ATHENS, Ga. --- Gym Dog junior and defending back-to-back NCAA All-Around Champion Courtney Kupets has undergone successful surgery to repair the torn Achilles tendon she suffered in Saturday's meet against Arkansas that ended her season, the team medical staff has announced Monday.

Kupets, who tore her left Achilles in a training session for the 2003 World Championships, tore the right one Saturday while attempting a front double Arabian tumbling pass to open her floor routine. When she tore her other Achilles in 2003, she was able to come back in a year and qualify for the 2004 U.S. Olympic team. Doctors say this was a clean tear as well and that she should be back and able to compete for her senior season in 2009.

"This is obviously an unfortunate situation for Courtney, but as always she is finding a silver lining to it," Georgia head coach Suzanne Yoculan said. "I talked to her today before her surgery and she's already planning her comeback. It's great that she has such a positive attitude, because if anyone can come back from a second Achilles tear it's Courtney."

An MRI following the rupture revealed an area of acute swelling above as well as an area of chronic inflammation below where the tear actually occurred. Her surgery was performed Monday morning at Athens Orthopedic Surgical Center by Dr. Dan Moye, who also repaired her sister Ashley's Achilles tendon after it ended her career last year before NCAAs.

"This is ironic in that it's the same injury that her sister Ashley had last year," Yoculan added, "but Courtney has told me she feels so fortunate that she still has her senior year left when she comes back. She is just glad it happened now and not later on in the season so she can be back that much sooner."

Kupets had a stellar season before going down with injury. She is ranked first in the nation on bars - twice scoring a 9.975 - and second on vault including a 9.975 in her final routine of the year against Arkansas. She won 14 individual titles and has an impressive 80 for her career.

Kupets, the 2007 Honda Award Winner for Women's Gymnastics, has claimed a total of five individual NCAA titles in only two seasons at Georgia as well as back-to-back individual NCAA All-Around titles, an achievement that had not been matched since former Honda Award Winner Kim Arnold won back-to-back titles in 1997 and '98. Kupets recorded the first "Perfect 10" of her career on the uneven bars in Georgia's 2007 victory over Alabama, becoming the first member of her team to accomplish that feat since 2002.

The junior is tied for second all-time with the most individual NCAA titles and needs just one NCAA title on floor to become the only gymnast in NCAA history to win one on each event and the all-around.

Prior to her college career, Kupets won a Silver Medal with her fellow U.S. team members in the team all-around competition, as well as an individual Bronze Medal in the uneven bar competition at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. A member of the 2003 World Championship team, Kupets will be inducted into the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame later this year.