Sometimes the scores don’t tell the story.
The No. 3 Red Rocks (8-0, 4-0 Pac-12) stayed perfect on the year with a 197.025-195.650 win over No. 17 Washington on Saturday but scored their lowest total in three weeks. However, Utah may have had some of its best performances of the season.
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After a slow start on bars, the Utes started hitting routine after routine on vault and floor, but the judges didn’t necessarily see that.
“Every meet is judged differently,” said Utah co-head coach Greg Marsden. “That’s why sometimes when we score big scores I caution to not put too much into it, and when the scores are tighter, I caution the team about that as well. It’s just the nature of our sport, and it’s going to happen. What we try to do is evaluate ourselves.”
On both the vault (49.475) and the floor (49.300), Utah couldn’t match their high scores of its previous two meets, but that’s not what Marsden saw.
“We went to vault and floor and did the best sets of the season,” he said. “I know the scores don’t reflect that, but you just have to trust me, we we’re really on fire on fault and floor.”
On vault the Utes were led by junior Kailah Delaney, who won the event with a season-high 9.50, and Georgia Dabrtiz who scored a 9.925.
Freshman Kari Lee and senior Tory Wilson also looked near-flawless, but both received just 9.875s.
Freshman Samantha Partyka made her non-exhibition debut for Utah on the event and posted a 9.850, even receiving a 9.90 from one judge. The decision to put her in the competition was a last-minute decision, as Marsden made the call during the event warm-up time.
“She was really on fire tonight all through the warm, and I just felt like it was her night,” Marsden said “Just a gut feeling I had, and she nailed it. She went second for us and absolutely nailed it. I’m really, really happy for her.”
The tough judging continued when the Utes moved to the floor. Senior Becky Tutka had her best performance of the season, returning to her All-American form of last season, while senior Corrie Lothrop was outstanding, but both received a less-than-perfect 9.850.
“We know whether we are doing a good job and if we are getting better or not,” Marsden said. “I really feel strongly, I think we stuck four out of five vaults tonight, and we were really on fire on floor. The floors were really performed well and we had a lot of difficulty, I feel like we had season-best performances on those two events.”
The Utes did have trouble closing the meet on the balance beam. Utah’s second performer, Dabritz, fell off the beam, creating some added pressure for the remaining gymnasts.
The Red Rocks had some close calls, but everyone else was able to stay on the apparatus to keep Utah from counting Dabrtiz’s fall. Even though they all stayed on, Marsden was less than pleased with how his team responded after the fall.
“That’s the first time we’ve really had to deal with a fall early in the lineup, so a lot of people had to go after that, and we didn’t really handle that very well,” Marsden said. “We got to do a better job staying mentally tough when something like that transpires.”
It was Dabritz’s first miss of the season, and though she has a history of struggling on the beam, Marsden doesn’t think it will have any lasting effects.
“Georgia made kind of a silly mistake on a leap that’s usually easy for her,” Marsden said. “I think we need to get back in the gym. I was really proud of how [Dabrtiz] did tonight. We’re not going to worry too much about that. Everybody makes a mistake from time to time, and we’ll just forward.”
The fall didn’t cost Utah the win, bit it did cost Dabritz the all-around victory, with that going to Washington’s Allison Northey.
The Utes will return home next Saturday to face Stanford.
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