After a busy couple of weeks with big meets, including the Pac-12 Championships, the Utah gymnastics team got some much-needed rest over the past two weeks as it preps for one of the biggest meets of the year, the NCAA Salt Lake Regional.
The Red Rocks are excited to get back in front of their faithful home fans within the friendly confines of the Huntsman Center for the last time this season. But extra weight will be added to the team’s shoulders in a must-win situation on Saturday.
Because of this, co-head coach Megan Marsden made sure these last two weeks of training were meant to calm the team and recover for the bid day this Saturday.
“We tried to come down a bit from the Pac-12 high, and eased into training last week,” Marsden said. “We got some good training in on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. We did a mock meet as well on Friday to try to stay within the schedule of one meet a weekend, but the nice thing was is that we kept the landings soft so we can do a little healing as well.”
Stover returns to beam lineup
Good news also came from resting during the team’s time off, as beam anchor Maddy Stover will return to the lineup after a serious injury where she tore her labrum and rotator cuff on Senior Night against Georgia.
It was a big concern for the coaching staff of the Red Rocks, who depended on Stover to do well at the conference championships on an event that has given the team some issues over the course of the regular season.
After discussing with her medical trainer, Stover was able to get some rest over the past three weeks with light training sessions, and is expected to make a comeback to the lineup to help her teammates advance to the NCAA Semifinals.
Stover was quite worried once the injury occurred, but had the confidence to recover after her lengthy time off from the gym.
“After Senior Night, [the medical staff] didn’t know if I was able to come back after the MRI showed,” Stover said. “I do need surgery, but we talked to my trainer and I was able to give it some rest during the week of the Pac-12 Championships. I was able to get back up on the balance beam and will be in the lineup this weekend.”
With Stover not being able to use her redshirt status due to competing in most of the meets the season, the sophomore will have to take the pain and help her teammates as much as she can before surgery over the summer.
“I’ve competed in enough meets where I can’t redshirt,” Stover said. “I will take as much of the opportunity [as] I can to be there and help my team.”
Home sweet home
Even though the Huntsman Center won’t be crammed with exclusively Utah fans, the Red Rocks still have a great history when Regionals are hosted at the U.
When being hosted in Salt Lake City, the Red Rocks have won 11 of their 12 Regional meets, with the exception of Florida taking first place in 2010. This gives a big opportunity for the team to get revenge over their Pac-12 foe UCLA, who is also in the group competing in the Huntsman.
Being the top seed in the group and having history on their side, the Red Rocks are expected to once again finish first at home and win their 29th Regional title in front of the home crowd.
@chad_marquez