It was a different night on Saturday for those who attended Utah’s meet against Washington. Lineups were changed and gymnasts with less experience in certain events got the chance to prove to the Utah coaching staff that they can be more dynamic with different routines.
The Red Rocks’ meet against the Huskies was an opportunity for the coaching staff to rest some of their top performers before their grueling three road trips that begin next weekend against Stanford.
Those who rested included Samantha Partyka, MaKenna Merrell and a few more who needed to regain some composure.
So who replaced these gymnasts in their respective events? Well, in the vault, Utah decided to go with experience and brought senior Kassandra Lopez into the lineup for the difficult event.
Lopez, who hasn’t vaulted since her freshman year, did reasonably well in front of the Utah home crowd — and helped the Red Rocks tie their highest overall score on the vault this season.
“I was really excited,” Lopez said. “It was only my second vault routine in five years, so it was really exciting. I think I killed it.”
In her last competitive vault score when she arrived to the U as a freshman, Lopez earned a 9.75 score against Stanford in 2012. Even though her counterparts were better fit for the event, Lopez still worked in training, just in case of a sudden lineup change.
Fast-forward four years, to when co-head coach Tom Farden decided to give Lopez the nod on the vault after great showings in training and exhibition in other meets, including against UCLA, citing her technical ability as one of the main reasons he made the change in the lineup.
“She’s been in a good spot lately,” Farden said. “She’s competing and practicing with more confidence, so for me it was a natural choice. I watched her do the exhibition vault at UCLA last week, and it demonstrated the technical things that I like and look for in vault, so I decided to make the switch.”
Farden also cited giving a few of his gymnasts rest before their three straight road meets against tough opposition.
“We had some substitution things to deal with,” Farden said. “But we had a great week of practice leading up to the meet. If this team has great practices it leads to great things.”
Another face who helped fill in for the Red Rocks was Maddy Stover, who took Partyka’s place on the floor. Stover believes the team’s depth is one of the reasons why the lineup changes against Washington weren’t as big of an issue as it is for other gymnastics programs.
“I think this team has a lot of depth,” Stover said. “Even though we’re a young team, we all work all four events and train that we’re going to compete regardless if we’re in the lineup or not. Everybody has a chance because we never know what’s going to happen. It really gives the team the depth that we have.”
With Lopez and Stover showing that they can compete in these different events, the Utah coaching staff will be looking more closely at them to see if they can help the team on the road during the Red Rocks’ toughest stretch of the season.
@chad_marquez