If there is one thing that can be said about Utah’s gymnastics team this year, it is that the Utes show up for the big meets.
That trait puts the Utes right where they want to be as they prep for the NCAA Regionals April 1-3 at the Maverik Center.
The sixth-ranked Utes will compete against No. 11 Arizona State, No. 17 Boise State and No. 21 Southern Utah while the other session pits third-ranked LSU against No. 14 Kentucky, No. 22 Utah State and the winner of the play-in between Temple and Arizona. The top two teams from each session advance to the regional final.
The Utes drew the rotation of starting on the balance beam, their best event. Utah normally likes to build toward that event, but this time the Utes will have to set the precedent on beam.
The regionals leave very little room for error since only two teams from the 9-team competition advance to the NCAA Championships April 16-17, but Utah coach Tom Farden expressed confidence in the Utes after they won the Pac-12 Championship with a season high 197.725 on Saturday.
“Any time you win a title in an elite conference it bodes well,” he said. “Looking at scores from the rest of the country and the conferences, we are right there. This team can compete.”
The one thing that is different from this competition than others is the back-to-back format. The Utes have the depth to rest some gymnasts if needed, but then they don’t want to get too presumptuous that they can advance to the NCAA Regionals finals without their strongest lineup.
“We will cross that bridge when we come to it,” Farden said. “But I’m not against making changes at the last minute.”
NCAA GYMNASTICS REGIONAL
Salt Lake City Bracket
At the Maverik Center
Play-in • Thursday, April 1: Temple vs. Arizona
Session 1 • Friday, April 2, 1 p.m.: Utah (beam), Arizona State (bars), Boise State (floor), Southern Utah (vault)
Session 2 • Friday April 2, 7 p.m.: LSU (beam), Kentucky (bars), Utah State (floor), Temple/Arizona winner (vault)
*Teams starting event are noted in parentheses
*Top two teams from each session advance to Regional Final on Saturday, April 3, 7 p.m. Top two teams from regional final advance to the NCAA Championships April 16-17)
Indeed, Farden did just that on Saturday when he switched out Alani Sabado for Cammy Hall in the vault lineup when Hall was struggling in warmups. Sabado scored a 9.8 in her first collegiate vault.
Vault was the only event that the Utes didn’t register a season high on Saturday, so it’s not surprising that cleaning up that event will be a primary task this week.
“We almost got too cautious so we have to work on that,” Farden said. “It’s hard to know how much a big lead played into that cautiousness down the stretch, but we will address it this week.”
The current format was adopted starting in 2019, when the Utes advanced to the NCAA Championships along with host LSU. Since the postseason was canceled last year, only Alexia Burch, Adrienne Randall and Sydney Soloski have experience with the format for the Utes.
Farden isn’t too concerned, believing in the way the team prepped for the Pac-12s will carry over to regionals.
“The upperclassmen will help the younger ones out,” he said. “This team has a lot of athletes who can perform at a high level in back to back nights.”
Utah junior CrIstal Isa said she and her teammates feel they can fix the issues on vault.
“We have a couple of good days of practice to go and we know it’s going to be hard but we are pumped,” she said.