The No. 6 Red Rocks are in the Wolverine State preparing to face No. 7 Michigan and No. 8 UCLA in a tri-meet tonight.
While recognizing this battle among top teams is important for gaining momentum going into the postseason, co-head coach Megan Marsden doesn’t feel it’s any more important than any other meet.
“I don’t think it’s a make or break,” she says. “Where we are seeded [in the postseason] is relatively set, but I do think for this group of athletes, it could be a really good buildup into the postseason. If they can go and really hit their stuff, then be rewarded and have a good meet, I think that can build some confidence.”
While the Bruins are familiar to Utah, Marsden’s team will also have to go up against a Wolverine squad it has not seen or heard much about. Competing in the Big Ten conference, Michigan has compiled a 12-2 record, with its two losses coming to No. 3 Oklahoma and No. 4 Alabama.
The Red Rocks faced UCLA on Jan. 25 at the Huntsman Center and got the victory 197.125 – 195.875. Since that loss, the Bruins have gone on to win five straight meets. They registered a score of 197.500 last weekend against Arizona.
In addition to trying to take down two highly-ranked teams, Utah will also be attempting to conquer its road demons on Friday. The Red Rocks have scored considerably lower when away from Salt Lake City this year and have not been on the road since their first loss of the campaign against Stanford on Presidents Day.
Senior Mary Beth Lofgren hopes her team can use this meet to demonstrate they are more than just a home team.
“I think we are going to keep trying to build like we did the last two weeks at home,” Lofgren says. “It’s obviously a different atmosphere when you’re on the road, but we’d like to prove that we’re a road team. All the postseason meets will be on the road, so we’d like to show that we can do our stuff on the road, too.”
Lofgren is coming off two weeks of great performances on her bread-and-butter event — beam. Despite Lofgren’s 9.900 on beam last week, the rotation for Utah overall was unable to break the 49-point mark. With Georgia Dabritz still suffering from a muscle strain and Becky Tutka stepping in last week admirably, the rotation is far from set even with the season winding down.
“I think she’s one that’s going to be hard to deny with how well she performed last week,” Marsden said of Tutka being in the beam lineup.
The past few days have been difficult for the Red Rocks. In addition to Dabritz’s injury and Kailah Delaney’s illness from last week, the stomach bug has made its way around the team as junior Corrie Lothrop and senior Nansy Damianova have both battled sickness throughout the week. Lothrop has recovered and is expected to contribute Friday, but Damianova was unable to join the team on its flight Thursday morning. She is going to try to catch a flight on Friday, but her status for the meet is unclear.
The contest is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.