Utah gymnastics: Utes shake up the practice routine going into NCAAs

Athletes often thrive on routines and training plans to keep them moving toward their goals. While the habits are good ways to approach training, if one thing gets thrown out of whack the athlete, in turn, can be thrown off his or her game.

So how best to account for that unpredictability? Keep throwing unexpected circumstances at them.

With few upgrades to make and the lineups set, Utah's gymnastics coaches have kept the Utes engaged in preparations for the NCAA Championships by surprising them with a lot of different scenarios in practice.

They've held mock meets, switched up the lineups and put the gymnasts in pressure situations.

The results?

"They've responded brilliantly," coach Tom Farden said. "We've been mixing up practice to keep them off their game but they've handled everything well. They are dialed in and focused."

The Utes have put an emphasis of late on unpredictability because nationals often brings its own. The meet can be slow or fast depending on the efficiency of the judging, injuries can happen and teams can be dealt unfamiliar rotations.

The Utes lucked out with the latter, drawing the 'Olympic,' order of starting on vault when the NCAAs begin Friday in Fort Worth, Texas.

But nationals are still a unique affair with an intensity and chaos all their own. At least with what they've done in the past few weeks the Utes feel somewhat prepared.

"It has helped a lot," freshman Sabrina Schwab said. "You never know what to expect in meets. The equipment can be different and you don't know what the judges are going to be like, things like that, and I feel like we've had every possible scenario in practice to get us ready."

Taking four freshmen and four sophomores into a national championship could be a worrisome situation for some coaches, but co-coach Megan Marsden has confidence thanks in part to the way this squad has handled the surprise situations, as well as the ones that have occurred throughout the season.

"With this team, whenever they face adversity, it not only seems like someone steps up but the team gets better," she said.

The week ahead

The Utes will practice Tuesday, then travel to Fort Worth on Wednesday. They have a fairly extensive practice planned for Thursday, Marsden said.

"This team has responded better by doing a little more the day before a meet in the past because of their youth," Marsden said. "They also need a chance to get on the equipment and get comfortable with it."

No lineup changes

The Utes aren't expecting to make any lineup changes from the one they used to win the NCAA regionals. Marsden did note that Maddy Stover, who anchored the balance beam lineup in regionals despite an injured shoulder, is doing better since that 9.8 performance two weeks ago.

"She did her twisting dismount on Friday," Marsden said. "She couldn't do that before regionals but her shoulder wasn't bothering her at all on Friday for the mock meet."

Of note

The NCAA Championships will be televised live on ESPNU. It is the first time the event has been televised live…Friday marks the first time since 1993 that the Utes will open its NCAA meet on the vault. Since then, Utah has either started (5) or finished (7) the meet on the balance beam a total of 12 times. The Utes started on the bars the other nine times.