Utah gymnastics team’s mission at NCAA regionals: Keep doing what you’ve been doing

All Utah’s sixth-ranked gymnastics team should have to do at the NCAA regional championship is what the Utes have been doing all year long, and they should be fine to advance to the NCAA Championships.

There is that word, “should” be.

There was a time when the field for the NCAA Gymnastics Championships was boringly predictable, but thanks to the growing depth in the sport, that is no longer the case, particularly this year when many teams limited their cross country competition leading to fewer matchups between the sport’s strongholds making it harder to compare teams.

This year, five teams have scored 198 or higher and 13 have a national qualifying score of 197 or higher.

The Utes (17-1) compete against Arizona State, Boise State and Southern Utah Friday at 1 p.m. The evening session consists of LSU, Kentucky, Utah State and the Temple/Arizona winner.

The top two teams from each of Friday’s session compete Saturday at 7 p.m. with the top two teams advancing to the NCAAs April 16-17 in Fort Worth.

“It’s a challenging field with a lot of talent so we have to do our job,” Utah coach Tom Farden said. “We’ve had a great week of practice and everyone has been positive.”

The Utes defeated Arizona State earlier this season but were pushed to their limit with the meet going down to the last few routines. The Utes were more dominant in the Pac-12 Championship where the Sun Devils finished fourth.

That win was the confidence booster his team needed, Farden acknowledged.

“It’s hard not to come off a conference championship and be a little hungry and anxious for more,” Farden said. “The way we started that meet was big. The athletes were determined and persistent all the way through and that says a lot about this team.”

Utah has been consistent this year, scoring above 197 in all but the first two meets. Still the Utes know the postseason leaves little room for error, particularly in the relatively new format of eight teams advancing to nationals instead of 12 that started in 2019.

Utah advanced to nationals that year but finished last in its national semifinal session.

Since the championships were canceled last year, the Utes feel they’ve waited almost two years to show they can hang with teams like LSU, Oklahoma and Florida in the NCAA meets.

“We want to go out and do our thing,” senior Alexia Burch said. “If we do our normal gymnastics, that should be good enough for this team.”

That kind of statement might sound a little cocky, but the Utes believe their record speaks for itself after they survived a hard league schedule undefeated and proved they could keep things together even in the most tense situations. They don’t seem to be one of those teams that will crumble on the big stage.

They should, with the emphasis being on should, be just fine.

“How do you prepare for the postseason and the high pressure situation of being on ESPN3?,” Farden asked. “By competing against teams like UCLA and Oklahoma and Cal and winning the conference, we passed all those tests except for Oklahoma.”