With a berth in the NCAA National Championship on the line, Utah flipped the script from its performance in the Pac-12 championship meet two weeks ago.
The Utes stormed through their last event of the NCAA Regional Tournament, breaking a tie for second with Denver and securing their spot in the national championships for the 38th straight year. They finished second only to Alabama, 197.4-196.4. Iowa State finished third with a score of 195.4 while Denver’s struggles on beam dropped them to fourth, scoring a 195.275. BYU and Kent State finished in the bottom two spots with a 194.475 and a 193.5, respectively.
“I was really proud that we battled all the way through,” co-head coach Greg Marsden said. “When we really needed to put one together, they did.”
Utah had the lead going into the last rotation in Corvallis, Ore., two weeks ago before collapsing on beam and falling to third place. But this time they were in a dogfight with Denver from the very beginning. The Utes never led the Pioneers until they ended the night with a 49.4 on vault, the highest any school scored on the apparatus.
The two schools were tied at 147 going into the final rotation with Denver heading to beam, much like Utah had to do two weeks ago. And, much like Utah did, Denver fell victim to subpar performances that cost them the upset bid. The Pioneers counted only one score higher than a 9.8 while Utah was looking sharp on what has been their strongest event this season.
“That’s the luck of the draw sometimes, your rotation,” Marsden said. “At Pac-12s, we had one that wasn’t very good for us in terms of what our strengths and weaknesses are. Here, it was set up very well for us — Denver goes to beam, the lowest scoring event of the night, and we go to vault which is arguably our best event.”
Becky Tutka scored a 9.85 on her first career vault, but it was Georgia Dabritz and Tory Wilson who sealed the deal with back-to-back 9.925s, tying them for the vault title. Wilson was glad to get back on the winning track after losing a vault title for the first time this year at Pac-12s, but she was more excited for the team’s opportunity to showcase their success.
“Vault is obviously one of our stronger events, so it was really good to go out there and rock it like we can,” Wilson said. “That’s one of our strengths, so we could just go and not worry about holding back and just do our vaults.”
But it wasn’t smooth sailing for Utah all night. After a bye in the first rotation they started their competition off with a solid bars set, earning a 49.175. Their second event was beam, where they were not without issues. The 48.65 was a far cry from their season-high of 49.425, but it was the second best score of any school on that apparatus.
Utah fell into third place during that rotation after Denver scored a 48.875 on vault. Utah would then move to floor and, even after some early struggles from Mary Beth Lofgren and Lia Del Priore, their score of 49.175 moved them into a tie with the Pioneers.
As they prepare for the title meet in Los Angeles, the Utes will look back on this battle with pride.
“[There were] a few things we weren’t expecting, but in general we overcame some obstacles that we had in the past,” Wilson said. “We really did a good job, so I’m proud of us.”