The No. 5 Red Rocks will be looking to extend their season when they compete at the NCAA regional meet on Saturday afternoon.
Utah, the No. 1 seed in the Fayatteville, Ark. region, will be competing against UCLA, Arkansas, Arizona State, Utah State, and UC Davis. After traveling west to Berkeley, Calif. two weekends ago for the Pac-12 Championships and putting on a show, the Red Rocks are hoping to carry that momentum forward as they travel east.
“I think it’s important that we continue to handle adversity on the road and be able to compete really well in spite of being in other people’s arena,” says co-head coach Megan Marsden.
Though Utah will be away from the Huntsman Center, Marsden and company are expecting a good crowd at the meet, as the Arkansas Razorbacks boast a solid following. The Red Rocks tend to compete best in front of big groups, regardless of whether or not there is a large contingent of Utah fans.
Joining the Red Rocks on the competition floor will be a couple of Pac-12 foes in the Bruins and Sun Devils. Utah is 2-1 on the season against UCLA, the regional’s No. 2 seed.
“At this point, we’ve proven two out of our three times this year that we can beat [UCLA],” Marsden says. “I feel good about being able to move out of this region if we hit our stuff.”
One gymnast who will have to be at full strength if the Red Rocks are to be one of the two teams to advance to nationals out of the Arkansas regional is junior star Georgia Dabritz. She pulled a muscle a few weeks ago and is still feeling some discomfort. Despite not being 100 percent, Dabritz has learned to manage the pain and push through it when need be.
She anticipates that she’ll be good to go on bars, vault, and floor, but she is still working toward competing as an all-arounder. Having cracked the beam lineup a few times this season, Dabritz is looking to do it once again even though the current lineup has been successful the last few contests.
“I’m still pushing towards it,” she says. “Our beam lineup has been doing really good in the past couple of meets, so I wouldn’t be offended if I didn’t make it in because they’ve been so strong, but I’m still trying to fight for a spot up there.”
Utah has qualified for nationals every single year in program history, but Marsden claims that the regional meet is a place her team has struggled the past few seasons. This year the Red Rocks’ region boasts four ranked teams, meaning that if Utah is not on top of its game, one of those three other teams is capable of stealing a spot from the Red Rocks.
“I’m confident that our athletes are peaking at the right time and they’re doing well and are a very good team, but I can’t guarantee that they will handle everything perfectly,” Marsden says. “If we [hit our stuff], we will move on. I mean, we’re just a talented team and we will move on if we hit our stuff … but could we possibly have issues? Any team can at this point. You just don’t know.”
When the meet starts, Utah will not be competing right away. As the top seed, its day will start with a bye before moving onto bars. Beam will come next, followed by another bye. The Red Rocks will close things out on floor and vault.
The meet is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. MT.