The 7th-ranked Utah gymnastics team is on the road for the first time this season. They’re driving a few hours south to Cedar City to face off against Southern Utah University. The Thunderbirds, who are currently ranked 30th in the national polls, will be a good test for these young Red Rocks, who want to make the most out of their first away meet.
Red Rock senior and team leader Breanna Hughes feels this meet will be a good first step for many of the young gymnasts on the team, as they will gain experience competing away from the comforts of the Huntsman Center. Being away from Salt Lake City also provides a bonding opportunity for the team.
“This [meet] is a big opportunity to continue what we’ve worked on in our first meet last week,” Hughes said. “It’s our first meet away from home, so it will also be a good time for the team to bond, especially for the freshmen to feel comfortable with the rest of us because we are a young team.”
Utah, who is coming off a confidence-building win over BYU last Friday, hopes to keep its momentum and climb up the national rankings. The Thunderbirds, on the other hand, want to give the young Red Rocks a challenge, and they hope to continue to build on their second-place finish last week at Denver. A win over a team like Utah could do wonders for SUU.
The Red Rocks are looking to repeat their run to the Super Six and need to perform at the highest level at every meet to do so. Utah co-head coach Megan Marsden also wants her young gymnasts to cope with the pressures of competing in different facilities that might be out of their comfort zones.
“I’m looking forward to taking this young team into a situation that they need to get really good at, and that’s going into someone else’s home,” Marsden said. “We need to able to really carry the meet on someone else’s floor. It has to be about our team in these away meets, and that’s not easy to do. But we have to get good at that in order to compete for a championship at the end of the season. I’m excited for this first practice round for the team.”
Even though the meet is only a four-hour drive from Salt Lake City, Marsden and the rest of the coaching staff are planning on treating this meet like an out-of-state meet.
But with only a short drive to Cedar City for the team, Marsden and co-head coach Tom Farden feel this is a great situation for their team to prep for road meets ahead.
“Sometimes it does help having our first away meet only a few hours away,” Marsden said. “But usually our in-state meets have always been against BYU and Utah State, so this a little different. Farden and I chose to treat this as a true road meet by going in the day before and leaving the day after. I feel like it’s a pretty good road meet situation.”
Utah is also in a tough predicament early in the season where the Utes are tied for the seventh spot in the national rankings with George Washington and Auburn. Even though it’s early in the season, Marsden would like to climb up into a Super-Six position as soon as possible, and she hopes a win over SUU will help their cause.
“I’m very competitive,” Marsden said. “It really doesn’t make a huge difference this early, but we want the team to have a reputation of being a contender. I don’t like being out of the top six. I like to be contending for a Super-Six spot all the time. We got some work to do but the girls are prepared to work on that.”
The meet will take place Friday night at 7 p.m. MST. Though it won’t be on television, live scores and commentary can be found on UtahUtes.com.
@chad_marquez