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ATHENS, Ga.–There isn’t an easy night at the NCAA National Championships and Utah knows that after the preliminaries Thursday.
The Utah gymnastics team rallied its way through a tight first night with a final score of 196.950 and finished second to Georgia. The Gym Dogs exploded for a 197.625 for the win. Stanford also qualified for the Super Six to be held Friday night with a 196.900.
The meet was not decided until the final rotation was complete. Stanford and UCLA had completed their nights. The Bruins earned a 196.725. With Georgia in control of the meet and just needing a decent score to advance, Utah and Michigan were fighting to trump UCLA for the third spot.
Consequently, Utah put together a strong 49.400 on vault to propel it into second place, thus bumping UCLA out of a qualifying position. Michigan stumbled on the balance beam and was eliminated as well. Denver was sent home after it finished last in its second straight nationals appearance.
Utah started out on bars after a bye and then continued to beam. The rotation didn’t serve the Utes too well. After a solid 49.30 mark on bars, Utah ran into some strict judging on the beam and scored a 49.05.
“I think it’s just natural that bars and beam are rough events to start out on,” Utah’s Ashley Postell said.
The team didn’t express disgruntlement with the judging on the bars and balance beam, but weren’t exactly sure where the deductions came from.
“I’m sure there’s stuff there (to deduct),” Utah head coach Greg Marsden said. “I just felt like we rocked bars and didn’t get rewarded. I thought we did a nice job on beam as well.”
Utah didn’t make things any easier on itself after its second bye.
The Red Rocks moved over to the floor where Katie Kivisto started Utah off with a fall. Daria Bijak steadied the ship temporarily by posting a 9.875. However, Kyndal Robarts took a step out of bounds on the following routine.
After Annie DiLuzio posted a 9.80, Kristina Baskett and Postell brought Utah back with a pair of 9.90 scores. Marsden said that the coaching staff will weight the possibility of putting Beth Rizzo back into the floor lineup instead of Kivisto.
Georgia, meanwhile, had the task of beginning the meet on the balance beam. With the pressures of winning a fourth straight national championship mounting, Hilary Mauro got Georgia off in the right direction with a 9.90 to open the event.
“That was a very critical routine for us,” Georgia head coach Suzanne Yoculan said.
Mauro’s routine was a precursor of what was to come all night for the host team. Georgia had 11 routines of 9.90 or higher and only one routine below 9.80 that counted.
The Gym Dogs took control early and never relented.
Despite Georgia’s sizable margin of victory, Yoculan isn’t overlooking anyone come Friday night in the Super Six- especially Utah. She expects the gap of victory-for whoever wins-to be much less.
“I’ve been really impressed with Utah’s difficulty, power and explosiveness,” she said. “I don’t see it as being a five tenths (of a point) win tomorrow.”
Utah’s rotation Friday night will again begin with a difficult event. The Utes start out on beam before a bye that precedes their floor routines. After floor, the Utes will vault and then take their second bye. Utah will finish where it began on Thursday with bars.
Although Utah was pleased with its performance Thursday and most of all that it advanced, Postell’s teammates showed sentiment that she did not claim the all-around individual title. Postell finished runner-up for the third consecutive year, this time to UCLA’s Tasha Schwikert. The Bruin senior racked up a 39.60 to earn the second all-around national championship of her career. She also won the honor as a freshman.
Postell said that she wasn’t disappointed that her 39.550 fell short and that she came to Georgia for the team’s goals. Baskett tied for third with Katie Heenan and Tiffany Tolnay of Georgia and Melanie Sinclair of Florida, all earning a score of 39.525. Sinclair competed in the afternoon session.
Postell did win five All-American awards for the fourth time in her career. She earned first team honors in the all-around, bars, beam and floor and second team honors on vault.
Baskett earned first team All-American honors in every category except for beam, where she did not claim honors. Utah’s other All-Americans are Kyndal Robarts (second team, vault) and Daria Bijak (second team, floor and all-around.)
The four Utah All-Americans will compete in their respective events on Saturday for the event national championships. As for Friday’s competition, the Super Six are Georgia, Utah, Florida, Stanford, Alabama and LSU.
Tony PizzaDaria Bijak’s performance on floor helped right the Utes’ ship after Katie Kavisto opening up the rotation with a fall.
Tony PizzaAshley Postell’s runner-up finish in the all-around helped Utah advanced to its ninth straight Super Six.