For the No. 4 Utah gymnastics team, the best preparation for its NCAA Regionals competition April 6 in Corvallis, Ore., is to take it easy.
Coming off the school’s first 198 score and the second highest mark in collegiate gymnastics history, coach Greg Marsden isn’t eager to change anything in search of the school’s 11 national championship.
“If our last regular season meet was any indication, it appears that we may be coming together just in time for the postseason, which would be ideal,” Marsden said. “At this point, it’s a matter of staying healthy and sharp.”
That means cutting back the number of routines, preventing injury. Marsden gave the Utes Monday off, and practice time has shrunk from the normal four hour sessions to two and half hours.
It also means giving rest to senior Deidra Graham, who has been sidelined due to bulging disks in her back. Graham successfully returned to the all-around last week, tying a career high with a 39.725.
Marsden is following the same plan he has had with Graham. The senior only does one set of routines per week.
Marsden said if the NCAA Regionals were to begin today, Graham would likely be in the all-around line-up again along with Theresa Kulikowski, freshman Annabeth Eberle and either Shannon Bowles or Melissa Vituj.
But an even greater psychological obstacle for the Utes is the competition site. The Utes have not been the same potent machine away from the Huntsman Center this year. In the Huntsman Center, Utah averaged a 197.225 team score in six meets. In five meets outside the JMHC confines, the score dipped to 196.335.
But Marsden isn’t overplaying the discrepancy.
“I’m not convinced it was road struggles,” he said. Marsden attributed the troubles the Utes experienced during the Olympic break to a result of mid-season inconsistency rather than venue.
Beam me up
For the second straight year, the Red Rocks finished No. 1 in the nation as a team on the balance beam.
With a team regional qualifying score of 49.38, the U gymnasts topped current No. 1 and defending national champion UCLA (49.305) for the beam crown.
Junior Theresa Kulikowski earned the No. 1 spot in the nation, earning a 9.960 RQS. Senior Shannon Bowles was not far behind, finishing third nationally with an RQS of 9.945. The only other Ute in the Top 20 was sophomore Melissa Vituj. Vituj’s 9.875 RQS tied for 20th.
The three aforementioned gymnasts are three of the top four event winners this year. Kulio led the team in the regular season with 25 wins, including seven beam and bars titles each. Bowles collected 11 victories and Vituj was fourth place on the team with five.
Sophomore Quebec native Veronique LeClerc’s seven wins, including three on vault, enabled her to third place on individual wins during the regular season.