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For it to advance to the NCAA Super Six, Utah's gymnastics team knows it has to do a better job on the balance beam in its NCAA preliminary competition than it did at regionals.
As luck would have it, the Utes won't have long to wait to test themselves.
The Utes have the unlucky — or perhaps lucky — draw of opening their preliminary competition Friday on the balance beam.
While the draw often makes teams cringe, Utah co-coach Megan Marsden prefers an optimistic view.
"For this team, I think it's good if we can get it out of the way," she said. "We know we didn't handle it well at regionals, but we've also shown we are a decent beam team this year. I think if we can hit, we will be on a roll."
Utah's beam lineup had to go through some changes after senior leader Tory Wilson tore her Achilles tendon at the Pac-12 Championships. Wilson had been the Utes' steady leadoff on beam all year, scoring 9.8 or higher in nine of her 11 beam efforts.
In her absence, freshman Maddie Stover slid into the leadoff spot for regionals and scored 9.875. Utah's troubles actually came later in the lineup, as Kailah Delaney and Kari Lee both fell.
Normally dependable gymnasts, the two will remain in the lineup, Marsden said.
"We aren't going to make any changes at this point," she said. "They know they have to go out and do the best they can and get it done."
As for Stover, Marsden is proud of the way the freshman handled her duties. Initially the coaching staff thought about moving senior anchor Corrie Lothrop to the leadoff spot, but after conferring with Lothrop, decided to leave the senior in a spot she felt she had earned.
"Maddie felt like she could go anywhere," Marsden said. "Sometimes as a freshman you don't really think about things, you just compete, and she competed with confidence and style and really set the pace."
Stover said she concentrated on being aggressive, rather than the fact that she was leading off the team.
"I can't go cautiously up there," she said. "I know that I have to be confident, and remember we have a great beam team that will carry us through."
The Utes see another advantage to the beam, other than simply getting it behind them. Many teams believe there is a trend that scores rise through a meet. So, often teams that are good on the power events such as vault and floor, like the Utes are this season, believe they don't earn quite as high on those events early in the meet.
"If we hit beam, we are probably still going to score around our potential, so I don't think that will happen there," Marsden said of the limited scores. "But we are a great bar team, so if we can get on a roll, we will be good there."
The Utes just have to get there first.
NCAA championships
P Friday-Sunday
At Fort Worth, Texas
Afternoon (noon MDT) • Utah (balance beam), Florida (bye/floor), Stanford (bye/bars), UCLA (floor), Michigan (bars), Georgia (vault)
Evening (6 p.m. MDT) • Oklahoma (bye/floor), Oregon State (bye/bars), Alabama (floor), Auburn (bars), LSU (vault), Nebraska (balance beam)
Note: Opening rotation listed with teams; top three teams from each session move on to the Super Six.