Sophomore Makenna Merrell during her floor routine vs California at the Jon M. Huntsman Center on Saturday, Feb 4, 2017. Chris Ayers Daily Utah Chronicle.
The University of Utah gymnastics team lost its first meet of the season to Oregon State on Saturday after a close competition. With mishaps in nearly every event, the Red Rocks lost by .025, 196.550-196.525.
Even with a close loss, Marsden thinks that whether her girls were a quarter of a 10th on the top side or the bottom side, they still have some work to do.
“It was a good performance, but not a great performance,” Marsden said. “We are still working towards having more times where we hit all 24 routines really clean without any mishaps that create a lower score. That is more of the goal at hand this week.”
Junior Maddy Stover agreed that the final score wasn’t how the team wanted it to look, but they are coming into this week with a chip on their shoulder.
“Taking a loss kind of ignites a fire underneath our feet and shows the younger ones that we win some and lose some,” Stover said. “We are coming in ready to get to work this week. We know it’s a big weekend ahead of us, but we aren’t intimidated.”
Stover continued that she knows she and her team are ready to show what they train every day. It’s all about piecing together the parts for complete performances on the Huntsman floor.
With the low scores the Utes received, some fans thought the Red Rocks were cheated on some of the scores. Though it is difficult for Marsden to comment on the judging, she did say that since they were on the road at someone else’s place some of the judgings can be a bit harsher.
“Do we feel like we were judged with a lot of scrutiny? Yes, but at the same time if we had scores that were building on each event and not a low score dropping us and having us to build back up, we would have won that meet.” Marsden said. “I think some of it lays on our shoulders, too.”
For Stover, she tries not to reflect much back on the scores, because there’s nothing she can do about it now. Stover mentioned that the team’s motto this year with its vision board is to “unify the moment,” and with what happened this past weekend, the team can apply it to its vision. Stover also thinks the Red Rocks all can find a 10th or two to capitalize upon in their routines that could give them a needed edge.
“We can’t control the performance that happened on the other team, we can’t control before or after our individual performances,” Stover said. “It is all about how we are able to take the moment that we are given and capitalize upon that.”
The Utes will be back in action on Saturday, Feb. 18 as they compete against UCLA. The meet is set to begin at 8 p.m. MT.
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