This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Sitting in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport waiting for the flight home to Salt Lake City, Utah coach Greg Marsden glanced at his team huddled together chatting and cracked a smile.

"It was a good season," he said. "A great season."

Yes it was.

The Utes wrapped up one of their best seasons in the last 20 years, suffering just one regular season loss, winning their second Pac-12 Conference title in a row and finishing second for the first time since 2008.

The 0.05 margin between the Utes and Florida in Saturday's Super Six was the closest margin between two teams in the 34 seasons of NCAA Gymnastics, outside of last year's tie between the Gators and Oklahoma.

On Sunday, Georgia Dabritz became Utah's first individual champion, winning the uneven bars title to cap off the most dominating NCAA performance on a single event as she became the first gymnast in history to earn back-to-back 10.0s on the uneven bars in the preliminary and Super Six rounds.

Yes, it was a very good season indeed for the Utes.

"I can't think of a better way for it to end," Dabritz said Sunday shortly after winning her award. "Taking second place, yes we would have liked to have won it, but we gave it our best shot and I'm proud of the way we finished."

Utah's strong season can be credited to Dabritz and fellow seniors Corrie Lothrop, Becky Tutka and Tory Wilson.

The foursome made up a huge part of Utah's lineup with all but Tutka regularly competing in the all-around.

"After last year this senior class was so determined this year," Marsden said, alluding to Utah's disappointing seventh-place finish in 2014. "They just picked up where they left off and continued with an approach of how do we get better than how we finished last year."

The hard work paid off, but also, looking at the future, leaves a huge hole to fill in the lineups. However, Marsden believes the Utes have the talent that next year shouldn't be much of a dropoff.

The Utes return Kassandra Lopez and Kailah Delaney, two juniors who are battle tested and ready to assume the role of leaders as seniors.

But others such as sophomore Baely Rowe and freshmen Tiffani Lewis, Kari Lee and Samantha Partyka also showed they can deliver under pressure.

"That is what is exciting, we had contributions not just from one class, but several classes," Marsden said. "Baely stepped it up and the freshmen came in and performed well and Kailah was money at these championships. They all came in and found their way to contribute and that bodes well for the future."

The Utes will also welcome four more freshmen next year in Sabrina Schwab (Lucas, Texas), Shannon McNatt (Houston, Texas), MaKenna Merrell (Pleasant Grove) and Erika Muhaw (Montville, N.J.).

They'll be expected to contribute right away, Marsden said.

"Like I always say, everyone looks good on paper," he said. "It's how they make that transition to meets that you have to figure out. But they're going to have to hit the ground running next year." —

Utah season highlights

• Undefeated in regular season except for a loss at Georgia, finishing 11-1

Won the Pac-12 title for the second season in a row

• Georgia Dabritz became Utah's first national champion since Ashley Postell in 2007

• Broke its own NCAA attendance record averaging 14,950 fans

Set a single-season and Huntsman Center record of 16,019 fans for a dual meet against Michigan on March 6

• Second-place finish at the NCAAs was its highest placing since a second-place finish in 2008

Season lowlight

• Utah lost senior Tory Wilson, the nation's ninth-ranked all-around competitor, to a season-ending injury during their Pac-12 Championship. One can only wonder what might have been if she had been able to compete at the NCAAs.