After a three-week road trip with wins over Stanford, Cal and Michigan, the Utah gymnastics team (8-1, 5-1) faces another tough test against No. 9 Georgia (5-7, 4-3) in Salt Lake City on Saturday.
With the regular season coming to a close, the Red Rocks are looking forward to this meet as they head into the postseason by returning to the Huntsman Center with loads of confidence.
Since it’s the last home meet of the regular season, Utah will also be hosting its annual Senior Night, where the team and home fans will honor seniors Breanna Hughes, Kassandra Lopez and Kailah Delaney for their commitment and hard work over the last four years.
It will be an emotional night for all three of them, but Hughes is also excited to get back to the Huntsman Center after being on the road the past three meets.
“Senior Night will bring a lot of mixed emotions,” Hughes said. “I’m excited that I get to go in the Huntsman with the team after three weeks on the road. It will be fun to do our routines again in front of the home fans, but it will also be sad because our gymnastics careers will be coming to an end. It’s a little sad, but I’m excited at the same time.”
Even though the Red Rocks are looking forward to Saturday’s proceedings, their competitor and rival Georgia is looking forward to crashing the party with an upset.
The Bulldogs, who have always fielded top gymnastics teams, have ranked a little lower than expected over the course of the season. But with upset wins over SEC rivals No. 2 Florida and No. 3 LSU, this team is willing to put up a fight.
Co-head coach Megan Marsden and the rest of the team are wary of their opponents, having faced them last season in the NCAA semifinals, and will make sure the Utah gymnasts can keep the Bulldogs at bay.
“I had a chance to watch them against UCLA this past weekend, and they are definitely a team that has been improving through the year,” Marsden said. “They had some beam struggles initially, but now they’re hitting their stride on that event. Their vaulting is also the best in the country, so we will have to put all the finishing touches on in order to beat them. I think it’s going to be an incredible competition, and one that our fans should definitely be there for because it will probably go down to the wire.”
Lopez also agrees that Georgia won’t be an easy win, but with the experience the team has gained over the last five meets, the senior thinks those moments will help the team’s advantage over the Bulldogs.
“They are definitely a tough opponent,” Lopez said. “They’re going to be hard to beat, but I think we’ve had tough opponents the last five meets so we will just go into it like any other meet and do our best, try to do what we do in practice, and see where that takes us.”
With another sell-out crowd expected to pack the Huntsman on Saturday night, the Red Rocks not only want to earn their ninth win of the season before they prep for the Pac-12 Championships in Seattle, but want to send the senior class out in the right fashion with a convincing win over their final competitor of the regular season.
Utah will face Georgia this Saturday at 5 p.m. MST, and will be broadcast on Pac-12 Networks.
@chad_marquez