This past weekend, Utah qualified for its record 28th straight national championship and remains the only school to qualify for every NCAA national championship.
Historically, the Red Rocks have not only reached the National Finals, but fared well in them to boot.
Utah has a total of 10 national championships8212;one of which was an Association for the Intercollegiate Athletics for Women championship in 19818212;with the most recent in 1995, when the Red Rocks successfully defended their 1994 national title.
Utah is tied with Georgia for NCAA championships all-time with nine trophies.
On Monday, draws and rotations were announced for this year’s national championships, which will be held in Lincoln, Neb.
The championships will be held April 16 to April 18.
“We’ve been waiting for this since nationals ended last year,” said senior Kristina Baskett. “So, it’s finally here and we’re more than prepared.”
Baskett and the Red Rocks will kick off their 2009 Nationals campaign in the evening session Thursday along with No. 3 Alabama, No. 6 Oregon State, No. 7 UCLA, No. 10 Arkansas and No. 11 Illinois. The rest of the field (No. 1 Georgia, No. 4 LSU, No. 5 Florida, No. 8 Oklahoma, No. 9 Stanford and No. 12 Penn State) will compete in the earlier session Thursday afternoon.
The host school, the Nebraska Cornhuskers, fell just short of making the field of the top 12 in the country and will be forced to host the event with only an individual competing in the all-around, something Utah head coach Greg Marsden does not envy.
“I really feel badly for Nebraska,” Marsden said. “For their team, for their event staff, everybody, because I know it would be much more fun if the host team was there. But with that said, it makes it a totally neutral site.”
Much like the West regionals, Utah will begin its rotation with a bye before moving to its first two events, the bars and the beam.
“I like our rotation,” Marsden said. “I like it because, in a sense, we have practiced a rotation like this every time we have gone on the road. Not this exact rotation, but one where we start on the bars.”
After the bars and beam, the Red Rocks will then take their second bye of the night before finishing with the high-energy events8212;the floor and the vault.
But until April 16, it is up to the Utah coaching staff to find the delicate balance between keeping the energy and intensity up in the gym and resting the team so they are fit for nationals.
“I just want us to maintain our focus and intensity,” Marsden said. “We’ll have our intersquad (practice) Friday just as we have every time we have had a week off and we’ll try to have a quality practice Monday before we leave Tuesday.”
This will be the fourth time to Nationals for senior leader Nina Kim, who was forced to sit out of Utah’s regional qualifier last weekend because of the flu.
But with her health improving, Kim’s experience is something she is counting on to help her overcome the mind games that pop up this time of year.
“Right now, it’s more mental than physical, because we have been training so hard and we know our routines,” Kim said. “So if we’re there mentally, then we’re able to accomplish anything we want.”
Greg HarlowAfter winning the NCAA West Regional in Seattle, Kristina Baskett and the Red Rocks are looking ahead and hoping for similar success in the NCAA National Championship next week.