On paper, it would seem the No. 5 Red Rocks will get a bit of a breather Friday night when they face the Washington Huskies at the Huntsman Center.
Washington will be the first non-Top 25 opponent Utah has faced at home since the season opener. Despite the Huskies’ less-than-impressive record, the Red Rocks refuse to take anyone lightly.
“All the teams are good enough now that if you have any problems anywhere, they can get you,” says co-head coach Greg Marsden. “You just can’t take anything for granted.”
Washington comes into the meet with a 4-6 record overall, including an 0-5 mark in the Pac-12. While Utah has never lost to the Huskies in 47 meetings, the squads have a history of close calls. Last season, Washington needed a 9.925 on its final routine of the meet to tie Utah, and that’s exactly what Aliza Vaccher got. Back in 2001, the Huskies needed a perfect 10 on the final routine of the night to tie the Red Rocks and got it.
With the tie from last year still fresh in their minds, Utah gymnasts are looking to avoid a close contest Friday and put the Huskies away early.
“Last year didn’t come out the way we wanted it to,” says junior Georgia Dabritz. “We kind of want a little bit of redemption from that … It’s kind of a bad memory, and we want to put it behind us. I want to prove to myself that I can do better than that, and I know the team does because that was for sure one of our weakest meets last year.”
Utah is coming off its first meet of the season without a fall. With that goal checked off its to-do list, the team is looking to maintain stability as the regular season enters the home stretch.
“We want to show even more consistency, but on all four events,” Marsden says. “More importantly for me is that we still continue to make progress in the areas that we’ve struggled with at times. My hope is that [Friday night] will be another step forward for us.”
After a meet that saw all six Red Rocks stay on the beam, gymnasts are hoping their woes on that event are behind them.
“I think we did a really good step in continuing our progress there,” Dabritz says. “Obviously I don’t think we’re ever going to be at a point where we can say we’ve officially conquered it, but we’ve definitely made great progress. It’s always going to be a place were we put pressure on ourselves, but we just need to learn to deal with that pressure.”
Friday’s meet will start earlier than normal, at 6 p.m.