The prevailing thought in collegiate gymnastics is road teams start out about .5 behind the home teams because there is a tendency for judges to favor the home teams slightly.
Whether or not that is more myth than fact is something gymnastics fans can debate amongst themselves. Regardless, Utah coach Tom Farden hopes his team has negated whatever disadvantage there might be with a vault lineup that continues to get better.
Alexia Burch is the latest to start throwing a yurchenko one and a half vault with confidence, which is worth a 10.0 rather than the vaults worth 9.95s that many teams are using.
Burch earned a 9.95 in the Utes’ win against Arizona State a week ago. Farden hopes now that she has one behind her, she will be able to start earning big numbers like that in future meets, starting with Saturday’s meet at Arizona.
“We would like to have at least five 10.0 vaults and we are getting in that neighborhood,” Farden said. “Lexie has been hitting that vault in practice regularly so I was elated to see it translate to the Huntsman floor.”
NO. 4 UTAH AT NO. 21 ARIZONA
At the McKale Center, Tucson, Ariz.
When • Saturday, 2 p.m.
TV • None
Records • Utah (5-0, 1-0), Arizona (5-2, 0-1)
Series • Utah leads 64-0
Last meeting • Utah won 197.075-195.4, Feb. 1, 2019
Of note • Arizona is one of two teams, the other is Washington, which has never beaten Utah…Utah has had eight different gymnasts win event titles through the first three meets…The Wildcats scored a season high 196.15 against Oregon State last week…Utah has hit 69 of 72 routines so far.
The Utes made the decision to switch her to the vault in the offseason.
“She did a heck of a job training it last summer and has been gaining a lot of confidence the last two weeks,” Farden said.
Burch’s vault was crucial to spark the Utes’ win over ASU and was a personal reward for all the offseason hard work.
“It was a little shocking,” Burch said. “Finding the landing can be difficult but I’ve done it about 15 or 20 times in practice.”
The Utes need more of those consistent, big scores as they head into a stretch in which four of their next five meets are on the road.
Farden sees the stretch as a good learning experience for his young team, but obviously he still wants wins too.
“It’s a good time to develop mental toughness,” he said.