After a much-deserved weekend of celebration following their victory at regionals, the Red Rocks found out Monday morning which semifinal session they will compete in at nationals on April 18 and which teams will join them.
No. 5 Utah will perform in the evening session of the semifinals and will go up against No. 1 Florida, No. 4 Alabama, No. 8 UCLA, No. 9 Nebraska and No. 15 Penn State. The afternoon session will feature No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 3 LSU, No. 6 Georgia, No. 7 Michigan, No. 10 Stanford and No. 11 Illinois.
“Looking at both sessions, I think they’re pretty, in my opinion, relatively equal,” said co-head coach Megan Marsden. “Part of that is because the amount of parity that is out there these days. It used to be more obvious which session you’d want to be in or not be in, and, to me, I think they both have lots of good teams.”
In addition to finding out what session they are competing in and who they’ll be with, the Red Rocks also found out their rotation for the meet. It will be nearly identical to the one they got at regionals, as they will start on bars, then head to beam before having a bye halfway through. After the bye, Utah will compete in the leg events — floor and vault — before ending the meet on the sideline with a bye.
The Red Rocks had a bye to start off last weekend’s regional meet before they competed on bars, where they recorded their third-lowest score of the season on the event. With no bye in between pre-meet warmups and the first rotation, Utah is looking to get off to a better start at nationals.
“I think it definitely won’t hurt us,” said junior all-arounder Tory Wilson. “I don’t know if our slow start [at regionals] was because of the bye or because of the nerves or what situation caused that, but I think that it’ll be beneficial for us because we know we can do well with that rotation.”
The Red Rocks will be looking for redemption in this year’s semifinal meet. A year ago, they failed to advance to the finals — the Super Six — for the first time since 1999. In order to advance to the Super Six, a team has to finish in the top three of its session. After returning nearly everyone from last year’s squad, Utah has been eager to get back.
“[Getting to the Super Six] was determined back in September, when the girls came back, end of August,” Marsden said. “When we were on a team retreat, that was determined by the returning girls that they did not want to be watching … They didn’t like sitting in the stands, and they didn’t feel like they were that far off of what they were witnessing on Super Six night.”
In an effort to get back to the Super Six, gymnasts have been encouraging coaches to be harder than ever on them throughout the season. Additionally, gymnasts have wanted coaches to talk to them about what it takes to win. Wilson said the Red Rocks are ready to prove themselves after a hard season of work.
“I was sitting there watching [defending national champion] Florida [last year] and their expressions when they found out they won, and that was on one hand really hard, but on the other hand, I wanted that so bad,” Wilson said. “That’s what’s pushing me this postseason.”
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