Two freshmen made their debuts for the Red Rocks last week at BYU, but they have yet to fully experience competing for Utah. They haven’t yet performed in front of a packed Huntsman Center.
On Friday night, the Utes will open up their home season when they welcome in Boise State, Southern Utah and UC Davis for a quad-meet.
“I know the girls are looking forward to getting back in there,” co-head coach Megan Marsden said. “The Red Rocks preview gives them a taste of it, but those freshmen haven’t experienced the real deal yet and I think they are excited for that.”
Even though she hasn’t experienced the Huntsman in its full glory, freshman Maddy Stover has already learned a valuable lesson in the short season.
Last Friday against BYU, Stover made her Red Rocks debut performing in the meet’s final event: the beam. Stover had a decorated career before coming to Utah and performing in just one event was a new experience.
“I’m not used to not competing in all of the events so waiting to the very end to do beam was a little challenging,” Stover said.
Stover said she had some built up energy and adrenaline as she climbed on the beam against BYU and, this week, she plans on combatting that extra vigor by being more involved in the meet, even when she is not competing.
“Just being a little more involved in the floor with maybe moving mats, helping out teammates, being more on the sideline as opposed to in the background just waiting,” Stover said about what she plans on doing differently this week.
She hopes that staying more involved will allow her to be more calm and in a “better state of mind” when she competes on the beam.
Aside from it being Utah’s first home meet, Friday will also be the only time this season the Red Rocks will compete in a quad-meet before they reach the regional and national competitions.
While dual meets alternate between the two teams performing, quad-meets will have the Utes performing right after another. It’s the same format that is used for championship meets.
“There are a few things we talk about and things they can take from it,” Marsden said. “We will talk about trying to take a little bit from that and save it for when we get to that time of the year.”
Sophomore Baely Rowe said the quad-meet shouldn’t have too much effect on the team, because they don’t pay attention to what’s going on around them anyway, regardless of what meet format they are competing in.
“We try to stay within ourselves so we don’t get distracted or nervous,” Rowe said. “We just try to go through the meet and do what we do in practice. You pay attention to the score but not too much.”
While Marsden feels that quad-meets help prepare her team for the postseason competitions, she doesn’t think it’s the best fan experience. Because of how the meet is structured fans won’t be able to watch every performance that will be taking place.
“We don’t love it here in the Huntsman Center,” Marsden said. “Sometimes it’s nice when there’s another meet on the road that we get to practice it more but not cost our fans.”
Friday’s meet is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. MT at the Huntsman Center.
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