On Monday afternoon the Utah gymnastics team all piled on the big sectional couch in the Dumke Gymnastics Center to find out its Regional destination.
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Cameras were at the ready to capture the teams cheer, as they watched the announcement of where and who they will be competing with. That celebratory shot never came — well, at least without a little staging.
As the second-to-last region was being announced, the online stream the Red Rocks were watching stopped working. Even so they had seen enough to know where they were off to — Berkeley, Calif.
In time, the stream came back on to show that Utah will face off against Georgia, Boise State, California, Utah State and Brigham Young on April 4, with the top two seeds advancing to the National Championship meet.
“It was kind of what I expected,” Utah co-head coach Greg Marsden said. “There are really four very good teams. Three top 18 teams there, plus Cal hosting and their very good on their floor. Its a dangerous regional, will have to be at our very best.”
Utah will get a chance to avenge its only loss of the season against Georgia. The Red Rocks were defeated by the Bulldogs 197.540-197.275 in Athens on March 14.
“Georgia, we have seen what they are capable of,” Marsden said. “That was probably their best meet of the year, but that’s what they can do.”
Marsden also welcomed the fact that Utah will be joined by two other in-state schools in California.
“I’ve always taken a great deal of pride that Utah — for the size of our state to have four Division I gymnastics programs.,” he said. “All of them have great traditions and I am not surprised that they all there. I always enjoy competing with our state rivals so I don’t mind that they are in our regional at all.”
During the selection show viewing party, the Utes were joined by Tory Wilson, who ruptured her Achilles in the Pac-12 Championships on Saturday, but they won’t be so lucky when the regional competition comes along.
“We got to get this figured out in terms of lineups and things,” Marsden said, “and go in and do our job and if we do that we should move on to [nationals] and if we don’t then we won’t and that’s the way it should be.”
NCAA Regional Fields (in order of seed)
Ames Regional
1. LSU
2. Nebraska
3. Denver
4. Washington
5. Michigan State
6. Iowa State
Auburn Regional
1. Alabama
2. Auburn
3. Minnesota
4. Iowa
5. Maryland
6. George Washington
Berkeley Regional
1. Utah
2. Georgia
3. Boise State
4. California
5. Utah State
6. BYU
Columbus Regional
1. Michigan
2. UCLA
3. Arizona
4. Central Michigan
5. Kentucky
6. Ohio State
Morgantown Regional
1. Florida
2. Stanford
3. Illinois
4. Arkansas
5. New Hampshire
6. West Virginia
Norman Regional
1. Oklahoma
2. Oregon State
3. Penn State
4. Southern Utah
5. Missouri
6. NC State
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