Ever since the Utah gymnastics team began, it has found a way to get to the NCAA National Championship meet. While that streak doesn’t appear to be in much danger this Saturday when the Utes compete at Berkeley as the region’s top seed, that doesn’t mean the Red Rocks aren’t feeling a little bit of pressure.
“I actually feel more pressure at Regionals than I do at Nationals,” said senior Georgia Dabritz. “I don’t want to be that one team that doesn’t make it. So I’m a little more stressed about that.”
On paper there isn’t much to be stressed out about. The No. 3 Red Rocks will go up against No. 10 Georgia, No. 15 Boise State, No. 20 Cal, Utah State and BYU. The top two finishers will head to the NCAA Championship Meet in Fort Worth, Texas on April 17-19.
Utah has faced four of the teams in its region this season already and are 3-1 against them. Georgia handed the Utes their only loss of the season, but Utah easily took care of business against Boise State, Cal and BYU.
If you look at each of the teams’ most recent Regional Qualifying Score, the Utes are the heavy favorites to win the region. Utah (197.670) is almost a full point ahead of Georgia (196.875), while Boise State (196.496) and Cal (196.240) round out the top four in the region.
Utah, though, will be weaker than it’s been all season. The Red Rocks will compete for the first time since losing senior star Tory Wilson to injury at the Pac-12 Championships. It’s expected that freshman Tiffani Lewis will compete in place of Wilson on vault, bars and floor, while junior Kailah Delaney will go on the beam.
“I think this team has handled the friendly competition well,” said Utah co-head coach Megan Marsden. “They trust that we coaches are making decisions based off who is ready to compete and help us win. It’s not about who we like the best — I think we have done a good job of letting them know it’s not a popularity contest, and we truly care about Utah winning.”
Marsden said freshman Kari Lee made a strong push to be in the bars lineup but didn’t have a great week in practice a week ago. Marsden did make it clear, though, that the battle for lineup spots will continue until the expected national meet appearance.
The Utes didn’t have a meet last weekend, marking the first time since the season began that they had a weekend off. To keep in the swing of things Utah held its own intersquad meet last Friday.
“We did that to try and keep in that rhythm,” Marsden said. “That’s how we handled that, because you do get in a weekly rhythm, and it’s not fun to move out of that. Sometimes it is good to have a nice touch of a break. I think we welcome it, but at the same time you worry about it.”
Marsden said the team this season has been good at judging how to prepare for a meet physically and even said many tempered their training in the two weeks between the Pac-12 Championships and the Regional meet, to ensure they are at full strength heading into the meet on Saturday.
“I have just gotten a feeling, including our freshmen, that they have a good deal for how to get themselves ready for gameday,” Marsden said. “And I like that about this group. They seem to be competitors, and even as coaches we are expecting the world from them every day, they know that might not be possible so they temper that a little bit in order to be great when they need to.”
The Berkeley Regional begins at 7 p.m. MDT on Saturday.
Utes honored in the classroom
The Pac-12 announced its All-Academic honors on Wednesday, and eight Utes were awarded.
Breanna Hughes, Kailah Delaney, Becky Tutka, Georgia Dabritz and Tory Wilson all earned first-team honors, while Kassandra Lopez and Corrie Lothrop earned second-team honors. Baely Rowe earned honorable mention.
The seven gymnasts named to the All-Academic teams was a conference-high.
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