This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
By the looks of things, Utah's first Pac-12 Conference meet of the season will be a very good one.
The University of Utah gymnastics team was voted as the No. 2 team in the annual Pac-12 preseason coaches poll Wednesday morning. The Red Rocks are slated to face the team that was voted No. 1 in the poll, the UCLA Bruins, in Los Angeles on Jan. 12.
Utah received four first-place votes — enough to tally 44 points in the coaches poll — while the Bruins, who are the defending Pac-12 champions, received 46 points as well as four first-place votes. Sitting behind the Bruins and Red Rocks in the Pac-12 preseason coaches poll are: Stanford, Oregon State, Washington, Arizona, Arizona State and California.
UCLA was voted as the No. 2 team in the country in the national preseason coaches poll and tops the Pac-12 preseason coaches poll for a second consecutive year.
The Red Rocks were voted No. 5 in the national poll Dec. 3, behind No. 1 Alabama, UCLA, Florida and Oklahoma. Stanford was ranked No. 6 and Oregon State No. 9 in the national poll, upping the amount of Pac-12 teams in the national preseason poll's top 10 to four, more than any other conference in the country.
Utah returns 10 lettermen and five All-Americans from the squad that placed fifth at the 2012 NCAA Championships and has eight ranked teams on its 2013 schedule, including home meets Jan. 19 against No. 9 Oregon State and No. 24 West Virginia. The Red Rocks also are scheduled to face off against No. 6 Stanford on Feb. 23 and No. 3 Florida on March 16 in Salt Lake City. —
Pac-12 Preseason Poll
Team Points
1. UCLA (4) 46
2. Utah (4) 44
3. Stanford 38
4. Oregon State 31
5. Washington 23
6. Arizona 21
7. Arizona State 11
8. California 10
First-place votes in parenthesis