The Utes finished their regular season with a big upset win over the Florida Gators, 198.125-197.875, in which they set season-highs on three events. The success was wide-ranging, but Utah’s most significant accomplishment was a 49.6 on bars, punctuated by a 10 from Georgia Dabritz.
Four other gymnasts scored a 9.9 on the apparatus, and the high scores bode well for the gymnasts’ confidence going into the postseason.
“That hasn’t happened yet this season, to put up high scores,” Dabritz said. “Bars has been one of our struggling events so to put up scores like that, it shows that we’ve worked on all of those little things that we need to improve on throughout the season.”
Dabritz’s 10 was the third for the Utes this season, and they have all come on three different events. Tory Wilson scored the first one when she broke through against California on Feb. 9, and Lia Del Priore — who wasn’t even in the floor lineup at the beginning of the year – put down a perfect floor routine two weeks later.
It says something about how well-rounded this Utah team is in spite of losing Corrie Lothrop in the fourth meet of the year, and not having Kailah Delaney perform at all.
The Utes have also been coming on stronger and stronger as the season has progressed. After struggling on the road early in the season, they broke through with a 197.125 at BYU on March 1 and followed that up with a strong performance at Georgia a week later, ending with a 196.975.
That was capped with the 198.125 Utah put up last week, joining Florida and Oklahoma as the only teams to surpass 198 this year. Co-head coach Megan Marsden is glad that they will be able to carry that momentum into the Pac-12 championships this weekend.
“We’ve had years when I’ve worried a little bit about when we peak too early,” she said. “With this group of girls, with a young team and with the injury to Corrie, I think it’s taken our entire season to work out some of the kinks and kind of build some confidence in this younger group.”
That score also jumped them ahead of conference rival UCLA in terms of seeding for the Pac-12 tournament, securing Utah the No. 1 seed by a margin of .01 over the Bruins.
What might be the most promising sign for these Utes is that they have not had to count a fall in the last two meets. This was a welcome accoplishment on the beam, where falls weren’t uncommon at the beginning of the season.
“I think we are at a really good spot,” Lia Del Priore said. “I think the last couple competitions have been really good confidence boosters, and I think we’ve finally been able to go into a meet more relaxed and not worrying about what scores pop up.”
But with the regular season over and postseason competition looming, the Utes know it’s time for them to take it to another level. They won’t be competing at home again this year, and scoring in the postseason tends to be tighter. If Utah wants to contend for the national title, they will have to continue this upward trend.