The U gymnastics team (3-0) does have a fraction of good news as it heads into five straight weeks on the road due to the Olympics?it doesn’t have to protect its 167-meet regular season home winning streak.
Utah, ranked No. 1 in the nation, will not host a meet in the Huntsman Center until a March 9 outing against Oregon State.
During the Olympic break, the gymnasts have road meets at No. 10 Louisiana State tonight, Washington on Feb. 8, Utah State on Feb. 15 and No. 9 Michigan on Feb. 22.
“I think being on the road for that long is going to show us what we have to work on,” said senior all-arounder Deidra Graham. “Rather than hinder us, it’s going to show us how tough we are, and it’s going to make us a stronger team.”
Coach Greg Marsden pointed out the 8,947 [average attendance this season] reasons it would be difficult to venture away from home.
“This group of athletes is such a group of performers that they really feed off the energy of the crowd,” Marsden said. “We’ve got to find a way to create our own energy within the team and not depend on the crowd.
“The challenge will be to compete with as much energy as we do here, because we’re going to go to places where we aren’t going to see the type of crowd that we have,” he said.
The first competition for the top-ranked Ute gymnasts comes tonight at LSU. Theresa Kulikowski, the 1999 all-around champion, will break into the all-around by including vault at some point during the road trip, but it won’t be against LSU. During the 2000 season, Kulio tore her ACL on the vault, at LSU.
Instead, Marsden will hold the current beam and floor leader’s progression to the vault for an arena without an unpleasant history.
“We have the luxury to do that. We don’t have to have her vaulting for us, or we don’t have to have her on floor routine every night,” Marsden said.
The depth of the team is without question. Utah comes off its sixth-best score in team history, a 197.475. The Utes stunningly possess four all-arounders ranked nationally in the top 10. Melissa Vituj (second), Veronique LeClerc (fourth), Deidra Graham (seventh) and Shannon Bowles (10th) form the quartet, but Kulio and freshman Annabeth Eberle (39.350 exhibition all around) will crack into the all around at some point during the road journey.
Bowles and Kulio already have five individual wins, and Graham and LeClerc own three.
Plus, there are two more gems waiting in the wings in All-American Kim Allan and injured senior Kylee Wagner. After suffering a sprained ankle on floor in the season opener, Wagner was doing vault into a cushioned pit last week in practice.
Marsden said because of Wagner’s intense rehabilitation efforts, she could break back into the lineup next week, if not tonight.
With the wealth of talent behind him, it doesn’t seem as if the Olympic road trip will be an excuse for Marsden, not that he would use that excuse. He is an advocate of the arrival of the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
“The Olympics, I’ve been involved in one before…It’s special. I think for our kids to be here, out of school and being able to have some time to be involved, whatever inconvenience it is, whatever kind of distraction it is, it’s once in a lifetime.”
The gymnasts’ training facility (the Dumke Gymnastics Center) is across the street from the Olympic Village. The gymnasts will never be too far away from the action.
But the gymnasts have to keep their focus through it all. Although the bevy of road meets may be disheartening, the Utes have to use it as a means to accomplish the ultimate goal.
“How we develop on the road the next five weeks probably will determine what we’re capable of this year,” Marsden said. “Regionals are not going to be at home and nationals aren’t going to be at home, so it’s really all about how good of a road team we become.
“Now we’ll see who we really are.”