Traveling a mere a 45 miles south to Provo on Friday night was probably the Utes’ best chance this season at a strong road score, and they knew it.
Utah came out firing and held a lead of 1.15 over North Carolina State after the first rotation. They eventually edged BYU as well, taking first in the meet with a 197.125. BYU was second with a 195.500 and NC State took third, scoring a 194.675.
The Utes’ score was their highest road mark since 2009 and will help their regional qualifying score, which will be used to seed them for the regional competition. But co-head coach Greg Marsden thinks the high score will be important to his team for reasons beyond just the numbers.
“We’ve got to be able to compete well away from our place if we want to do well in the end,” he said, referring to the fact that Utah will not be hosting a postseason meet this year.
For the first time this season the Utes started on beam, where they have struggled lately. But they didn’t seem fazed by it as they put down their second-highest score of the year, a 49.050. It was the highest they had scored on the event since Jan. 19. After the first rotation, Utah led BYU by .05 and NC State was already fading into the rearview after putting up a 47.9.
Utah never trailed in the meet and only added to its lead after scoring a 49.325 on floor in the second rotation. Lia Del Priore scored a 9.9, which followed up the perfect 10 she earned last week at home.
“It’s just been getting a couple routines under my belt, getting that confidence,” she said. “Those first couple routines that you do in a season, it’s really intimidating. Finally, now I’m just comfortable and I don’t even think about what I’m doing.”
The Utes then went to vault in the third rotation, their strongest event. BYU had its worst event of the night on beam in the third rotation as the Cougars had to count two 9.5s and ended up with a 48.450. Meanwhile, Utah got a career-high 9.925 from Nansy Damianova. Georgia Dabritz then matched that score before Tory Wilson earned her eighth straight vault title with a 9.95. She is undefeated on the season.
“She wasn’t in our lineup last year and it really frustrated her,” Marsden said of Damianova. “She worked very hard in the preseason and has continued to work hard. Landings have always been difficult for her, and she nailed it tonight.”

Utah started and finished with tough events and did well on each one. In the final rotation, the Utes counted nothing lower than a 9.825 on bars and Dabritz sealed the deal with a 9.9, capping a 49.257 on the apparatus.
Utah swept all five individual titles, something it had done in four straight meets earlier in the year but had missed in its last two competitions. Wilson took her second all-around title of the season with a 39.45, beating second-place finisher Raquel Willman of BYU by almost half a point. Wilson then took her third individual title of the night when she and Mary Beth Lofgren tied for the beam title with a 9.875. Dabritz’s 9.9 earned her the bars title for the third week in a row.
“I think we handled it beautifully,” Del Priore said. “We came out with a bang. It was good to see because we were able to hit that solid beam, and it just carried throughout the night.”