For a record 27th consecutive time, the U gymnastics team will be sending a team to the national championships.
The Red Rocks successfully carried over the momentum from their school-record score versus BYU on March 23, winning the West Regional outright with a 197.100 in Corvallis, Ore., Saturday night.
Even more encouraging going into the NCAA Championships, the Utes hit all four events in a competition away from the Huntsman Center.
“It wasn’t a perfect meet for us, but it’s our first road meet all year where we haven’t counted a fall, and I feel like we’re on a bit of a roll,” U coach Greg Marsden said.
“We were not going to come out of this counting a fall,” Marsden said. “Oregon State, Oklahoma and Washington all were doing a good job and kept the pressure on.”
Second-place finisher and host Oregon State will join the Utes in Tuscaloosa, Ala., for the NCAA Championships in two weeks.
The Beavers came back from a 0.4-point deficit to total a 196.800, edging Oklahoma’s 196.625.
The scores tailed off beyond the top three, as Washington scored a 194.775, Boise State finished with a 194.550 and Southern Utah University placed last with a 193.350.
The Utes set the tone in their opening event, the floor exercise. From 1 to 6, the Utes were solid. Senior Lindsay Tanner opened the set like a veteran, scoring a 9.825. Shannon Bowles, Theresa Kulikowski and Melissa Vituj stepped it up for scores of 9.900 each. Freshman Annabeth Eberle and senior Deidra Graham rounded out the scoring with 9.875s.
The U’s team mark in the event was a 49.450.
The Utes then moved to vault, where Tanner unexpectedly led off again.
“Shannon [Bowles] was struggling during our three minute touch on vault, and I asked her if she thought we should replace her with Lindsay. [Shannon] said ‘yes,'” Marsden said.
After Tanner led off the vault event with a 9.750, Graham fell on the landing.
However, the other Utes stepped up to secure the region’s only 49-plus team score on vault (49.125).
Sophomore Veronique Leclerc scored a 9.825, Kulikowski earned a 9.825, and Vituj score a 9.800, but the vault title went to the freshman Eberle.
Eberle’s 9.925, including a 10.0 from one of the four judges, beat out the nearest vault score by 0.75 (four gymnasts scored 9.850s).
After kicking back with the first of two bye rounds, the Utes took to the uneven bars.
The team delivered with another no-fall set. Kulikowski hit for a 9.950, the best bars score of the Regional. She was complemented by a 9.875 by Leclerc, who competed in just two events for the second straight week after nine consecutive weeks in the all around lineup.
Bowles added a 9.850, Graham a 9.825 and Eberle a 9.800 on bars.
Utah then rotated to its last event, beam. Kulio again performed to perfection (her 11th career 10.0), and the Utes overcame a fall by junior All-American Kim Allan to post a 49.225 team beam score, tied for the best in the competition.
“Judges don’t throw out 10.0s in the postseason, so the fact that three judges gave her a 10.0 showed how good she was,” Marsden said of Kulio.
Also on beam, Bowles secured a 9.950 and Vituj totaled a 9.850.
With the lead mathematically safe in hand, the Utes sat back and watched in their second bye round, as Oregon State overcame Oklahoma for the second ticket to Tuscaloosa.
Kulio earned the all-around crown with a 39.625, topping the nearest competitor by a point-and-a-half.
Eberle would set a new career high in the all-around, a 39.325, as she finally hit all four events.
Bowles contributed scores of 9.950 on beam, 9.900 on floor and 9.850 on bars, and could’ve been in the hunt for the all-around with the addition of vault had it not been for her display of team solidarity.
Marsden was also high on the performance of sophomore Vituj, who scored an all-around total of 39.300.
“Melissa Vituj is just amazing. It’s too bad that she gets overlooked because of our upperclassmen, because she always rises to the occasion,” Marsden said.
In overcoming the road obstacle, the Utes take the latest injection of momentum into the NCAA Championships in search of their 11th national title and their first crown since 1995.