Utes gymnastics off to a sizzling start, now ranked 3rd

Utah’s gymnastics team was doing well on the balance beam — and was highly ranked — despite its inexperience. So what did coach Tom Farden do before the biggest meet of the year?

He messed around with the lineup, of course.

On Saturday, against No. 10 Cal, Farden put Adrienne Randall ahead of Abby Paulson with the hope that Randall would provide a good setup score for the freshman.

It worked, as the two scored 9.95s en route to a 49.625, propelling the Utes past the Bears for a 197.55-197.325 win and came close to the school record of 49.65 the Utes set in 1995.

So here is the thing about Farden, who is in his first year of solo coaching. He might not be done tweaking that lineup, or the others for that matter and could have a new version out there when the Utes host No. 21 Oregon State on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Huntsman Center.

“I told the Red Rock nation that we are probably going to be changing things all the way through mid-February,” he said. “I tried to give a warning.”

No one can argue with his results so far as the Utes have shown steady improvement.

They are ranked fourth on beam (49.345), sixth on floor (49.33) and eighth on vault (49.145) and bars (49.245).

“We are six deep right now and maybe nine on some events so we are still trying to find the right combinations,” Farden said. “Beam is close to where we want it. I really liked how Paulson took advantage of what Randall did and went out there and said, ‘I can do that, if not better.’”

Farden has jostled the lineups before, doing so two seasons ago to keep the team guessing and make them familiar with unfamiliarity.

This time, the changes have as much to do with the challenge of replacing gymnasts who graduated as motivating the team.

“We have six coveted spots each event and it does keep them on their toes,” he said of his gymnasts. “It’s our intention of putting the best six up there and the highest scoring threat but we are finding as we move along we have a very competitive squad.”

Utah senior Missy Reinstadtler said the team has learned to handle the changes.

“Ultimately the mindset is it doesn’t matter if you are first or second or somewhere else, you still have to hit,” she said. “We view changing it up as something necessary because we have so much depth.”