The No. 4 U gymnastics team heads into NCAA Regionals in Corvallis, Ore., this weekend with the usual suspects?All-American seniors Deidra Graham and Shannon Bowles, former NCAA all-around champ Theresa Kulikowski and up-and-comers Melissa Vituj and Veronique Leclerc.
But the Red Rocks enter the all-important second season with a key player who lacks postseason collegiate gymnastics experience in 18-year-old freshman Annabeth Eberle.
So it doesn’t hurt to have a bevy of gymnasts with NCAA Championship experience guiding the talented first-year Ute.
“It’s really comforting. I’ll watch and see how they handle the pressure. They’ve been there before, so they know how to handle it,” Eberle said.
“It’s always important to hand down the traditions. The coaches can only do so much, but the older gymnasts have done a good job of passing down what’s expected to the new [gymnasts],” U coach Greg Marsden said.
Eberle, however, isn’t at a loss for big-time competition. She was a seven-year U.S. National Team member. She placed 19th in the all-around at the 2000 U.S. Gymnastics Championships and has competed in Canada and the Netherlands in her gymnastics travels.
That kind of rsum earned her praise and quite a following from gymnastics coaches throughout the country.
Before the season, Marsden called Eberle “such a physical specimen that she’s intimidating.”
Eberle took three recruiting trips as the most highly courted gymnast in the country.
Her first visit was to gymnastics powerhouse Georgia, where she was convinced she would attend. Then came current No. 5 Michigan, and finally the U, where the Reno, Nev., native distinctly made up her mind.
“It just clicked here,” Eberle said. “I liked the campus, the team, the work ethic. I committed [to Utah] the day I got home from the U.”
After Marsden successfully recruited Eberle, he called her “one of the strongest and most talented athletes we’ve ever recruited. Her strong tumbling and vaulting will immediately improve us as a team.”
But her development as an incoming freshman was slowed by a pair of injuries.
Eberle came to the U one week removed from wrist surgery. To complicate matters, she started feeling back spasms before the Christmas break, just a month away from the U’s Jan. 11 home opener against Ohio State.
“She was not fully prepared to start the season,” Marsden said.
Eberle competed on two events for the first five weeks, mainly on floor and vault.
“She was frustrated she wasn’t in the all-around at the start of the season, but I told her to be ready when [an opportunity] comes, to take advantage of it,” Marsden said.
Eberle got her first chance to compete in all four events at Utah State on Feb. 15. However, nerves got the best of Eberle, as she suffered falls on the uneven bars (9.100) and the balance beam (9.300), her two weaker events.
After competing on three events the following week, Eberle went all-around the next four straight meets.
“Only in the last two or three weeks has she shown what she’s capable of,” Marsden said.
Her highs this year are impressive?a 9.950 on floor, 9.925 on beam and 9.900s on vault and bars?but Eberle’s high all-around score is just 39.100, because she hasn’t had an all-around meet where she has hit all four events.
“I don’t know what it is,” she said. “I’m good now at blocking out the crowd by using the other meets [as examples]. I know I can do it [land all four events]. I need to treat it like it was one more practice.”
Marsden wasn’t shocked at Eberle’s progression to the status of a freshman all-arounder on a veteran team.
“I never know what to expect [with an incoming freshman], but I’m not surprised,” Marsden said.
The freshman agreed. “I don’t know if it’s typical, but I did expect to be in the all-around,” she said.
At this week’s NCAA Regionals, Eberle is slated again to go all-around for the No. 4 Utes. Marsden is considering putting Eberle in the all-important first spot on beam, and maybe bars as well.
And perhaps more important than what Eberle accomplishes during this postseason is her upside in the coming years.
“The future of the team is Melissa [Vituj], Veronique Leclerc and Annabeth Eberle, in terms of strong all-around performers,” Marsden said. “And not just next year, but especially the year after that, when Theresa Kulikowski and others are gone.”
He said Eberle is the first gymnast since former Ute All-American and U.S. Olympian Missy Marlowe to dismount the balance beam with a double back.
With her talent and promise, Eberle will be reversing roles in years to come, taking the role of seasoned veteran in showing the ropes to future U gymnasts.