It’ll be UCLA vs. Utah in Saturday’s Pac-12 Gymnastics Championships at the Maverik Center

Asked this week about the Pac-12 Gymnastics Championships, Utah junior MyKayla Skinner cracked a smile and said, “finally, we’ve been waiting for this for so long now.”

That about sums up the mentality of Utah’s gymnastics team as it competes in the Pac-12 Championships at West Valley City’s Maverik Center on Saturday.

The Utes used the regular season as prep for the postseason, tweaking their lineups and facing pressure situations in practice and competition to be as mentally prepared as they are physically.

“We have been building and building throughout the season,” senior Kari Lee said. “Now it is a matter of getting the little details down like sticks and what not.”

The lower seeds of Washington, Arizona State, Stanford and Arizona compete at 1 p.m. and the top seeds of UCLA, Utah, Oregon State and California compete at 6 p.m.

UCLA, the defending champion, defeated Utah in the regular season and is the top seed Saturday.

However, the Utes like their chances since that was a close loss of 198.025-197.625 and the Utes seemed to have figured out their issues on the balance beam.

History is on their side too, Lee pointed out.

“The Pac-12s, we always seem to bring it a little more,” she said.

The Utes won the title in 2014, 2015 and 2017, and finished in the top three the other years, giving the program the distinction of being the only one in the league to do so. The Bruins won in 2012 and 2016 in addition to last year.

While the league is strong, Utah and UCLA clearly are a notch above the others and are the favorites.

“It will definitely be hard to come out on top but not impossible,” senior MaKenna Merrell-Giles said. “We are [peaking] at the right time.”

Having the meet in the Maverik Center on the raised podium equipment marks a new turn for the conference as it enters a three-year agreement with the arena.

“I love that we are going to have the championship feeling because of the podium,” Utah coach Megan Marsden said. “Having that happen is critical. I know our fans, too, and we are going to have a full house of fans who will appreciate all the great performances.”

The Utes hope to have the most, of course. Utah spent the regular season treating its meets as prep for the championship run. The last puzzle was figuring out the issues on balance beam, which seemed to be resolved by moving Lee to the leadoff spot and having the inexperienced gymnasts gain some confidence.

Utah is coming off its best beam effort, a 49.425, in the last regular season meet at Georgia. The Utes lost, but feel encouraged given the beam score and that their missteps came in usually strong areas.

“It’s a bummer we lost at Georgia but we did a lot go good things,” Merrell-Giles said. “We finished on beam which an be the most nerve-wracking event and their crowd was big and they were on floor and we held our nerves.”

The Utes lost the Georgia meet because they had subpar performances on their best events, floor and vault. They believe if they can hit their average on those events, they have a good shot at the title.

“We have some athletes who would very much like to win a Pac-12 title again and they haven’t forgotten they were beaten by UCLA,” Marsden said. “Our goal is to stay focused and have each athlete perform as well as we can. UCLA is an incredible team and it shows but we are prepared too and we are ready for an event like this.”