Utah's gymnastics team might be young, but it's good too.
The No. 5 Utes opened their season with a 195.7-195.3 win over the top-ranked and defending champion UCLA Bruins Friday.
It was the first win for the Utes over a top-ranked team since upsetting Georgia in the 2008 season opener. That year the Utes went on to finish second.
Whether this year's team can make a similar run remains to be seen, but at least the Utes know they have the talent to hang with a team such as UCLA.
"This was exactly what we talked about," Utah coach Greg Marsden said. "The freshmen class has had a good attitude and were determined to do what was asked of them and they wanted to compete and contribute, what we didn't know is how they would handle (the crowd) against the defending national champions in front of a lot of people. Most have never been in anything like that environment and they handled it well."
Utah's Stephanie McAllister won the all-around with a 39.175.
The Bruins had to count a fall on the balance beam which gave the Utes the opportunity for the win.
UCLA coach Valorie Kondos Field said she was happy with her team's performance.
"Utah is always going to be a team that is going to be clean and is going to hit and we had to be clean and hit to beat them," she said.
