Some gymnasts have been sick, Corrie Lothrop has a sprained ankle and the Utes are just a week away from hosting the top-ranked college gymnastics team in the country.
Sounds like Friday's meet against Utah State would be a perfect time for the Utes to back down a bit and rest.
However, thanks to their own ambitions and the necessity for a good road score, the Utes won't back off against the Aggies, coach Greg Marsden said.
The Utes beat Michigan 196.425-195.425 a week ago but weren't thrilled with their performance, making a clean meet tonight even more important.
"We need a little more focus and intensity," Marsden said. "I don't want to overplay it and make it sound like I'm unhappy with their work ethic, because nothing could be further from the truth. What happened last week was my fault, but we need to get that intensity back.
"We need to go and get a good road score and keep moving forward," he said.
Getting a win shouldn't be much of an issue for the Utes.
Utah State has just one win this season, beating Wisconsin-Eau Claire in January 191.35-181.675.
The Aggies did score a season high in their 196.25-193.6 loss to Boise State on Friday.
That score marked the highest for the Aggies since a 193.725 on March 12, 2010.
Senior Jackie Dillon earned a career-high 38.65 in the all-around and junior Nicole Simoneau won the bars title with a 9.875 on Friday for the Aggies.
Still, the biggest threat the Utes face is having a poor meet that leaves them with a low regional qualifying score.
The Utes are unranked this week after holding steady at No. 3 because they don't have the minimum number of three road meets required for the formula. The RQS is determined by taking a team's six best scores, three of which must be road meets, and averaging all of them except the high score.
Utah doesn't care so much about the ranking in itself, but the RQS is used to determine a team's seeding for regionals.
That the system uses only select meets rather than all of the results in a season to determine a team's post-season status has long been a point of contention with Marsden.
"In other sports you don't get to have mulligans, you count everything," he said. "Some want it because it's the tradition of gymnastics."
The Utes' remaining road trips are to Oregon State on March 12 and to BYU on March 18.
It's likely that unless the Utes have one of their best meets Friday that the Utah State meet could be replaced by one of those scores because judges often have a tendency of softening scores when there is such a gap between teams' abilities, such as the one that exists between Utah and the Aggies.
While he didn't want to comment on the judging trends, Marsden did say the team's focus would be on its own performance, not the score.
"We can't control what the judges are thinking or what other teams are doing," he said. "Last week was a little bit of a step backwards for us and we're focused on going up there and giving our best effort." —
Utah at Utah State
P At the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum
Friday, 7 p.m.
Records • Utah 6-1; Utah State 1-10
Series • Utah leads, 85-3
Last meeting • Utah won 196.225-178.25, Feb. 12, 2010
About the meet • The Utes haven't lost to Utah State since 1979 and are 27-2 in Logan. ... The Utes are coming off a 196.425-195.425 win over Michigan. ... Utah is unranked this week after the scores switched to the Regional Qualifying Score system, because they don't have the minimum three road meets required. ... Utah State is coming off a season-high 193.6 in a loss to Boise State (196.25). ... Top all-arounders are Lyndsie Boone (38.85) and Jackie Dillon (38.65).
