[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]During the Red Rocks’ 197.850 – 196.375 win over Arizona last week in Tucson, freshman Kari Lee received a home-crowd ovation as friends and family came and cheered loudly for the Arizona native. Lee should probably get used to thunderous applause.
After the meet, Utah co-head coach Greg Marsden dubbed his young freshman a superstar.
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“Oh my gosh,” Lee said in reaction to her coach’s flattering words. “I don’t see myself as a superstar, I just see myself as a human being. I see all my teammates as superstars. It’s an honor, but we all are in my eyes.”
Marsden’s words aren’t without merit. Lee has hit every one of her routines this season, and has steadily improved every meet. Against the Wildcats, Lee set personal bests on all three of her events (beam, vault and floor) and claimed her first collegiate victory with a 9.925 performance on the beam.
“I have no idea how I’ve been able to do it,” Lee said. “I just go out there and have fun and I guess the judges like me, so they give me good scores. I just take a deep breathe, I ask my teammates for help, I think back to all the practices we have done and just reassure myself that I’ll be okay.”
The Utes needed beam reinforcements and Lee has been more than happy to help solidify the event for the Red Rocks.
“Ever since I was a little girl, that’s always been my favorite event. I just feel like it calms me,” Lee said.
To a normal person standing on a four-inch beam, four feet off the ground would be anything but calming. Throw in Lee performing spins and flips on it, and well, saying it’s calming sounds just a little crazy.
“All the other events you have to be all hyped up and use your adrenaline and put all your might in it, but beam you have to calm down, calm your nerves and focus,” Lee said. “Of course it’s scary standing the beam, but I don’t see it like that. I see it like it’s a floor and you just have to go straight and that’s it.”
Now she is heading straight towards super stardom, following the long line of Utah gymnasts before her.
Lee is already excelling in three of the four events, and two weeks ago she began working on a new uneven bar dismount to help her stick her landings more consistently to get her ready to compete in that event. She hopes by next year she will be prepared to go in the all-around.
The season hasn’t gone exactly to script for the freshman though — heading into the meet against UCLA, Lee’s Achilles started to be sore.
“It’s in my family genes — torn Achilles,” Lee said. “My older brother and my older sister have both torn their Achilles, so when they started hurting I was like, ‘Oh my gosh is it going to be me next?’”
Lee was held out of the floor and vault competitions against the Bruins, in hopes the extra rest would allow her Achilles to heal. It apparently worked because a week later, she had her best meet as a Ute.
Lee and the Red Rocks return to the Huntsman Center on Friday at 6 p.m. against Arizona State.
@millerjryan
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