They don’t fear their opponents, they don’t fear their rotation and they don’t fear they’re not talented enough. Utah’s gymnastics team is in as good a position as it can be as it begins competition in the NCAA Championships.
Never mind that the Utes haven’t won a national title since 1995. This team speaks with a determination and confidence normally seen in past winners like Oklahoma and Florida.
“If we go in and do what we normally do with precise finishing, we will make it hard on the other teams,” senior Sydney Soloski said.
Soloski isn’t bragging, just stating what the Utes have done for the last two seasons. The only loss they have suffered in that timespan was at Oklahoma in the second meet of the current season.
Last year the team was devastated when the postseason was canceled, not only because they wanted to compete, but because they believed they stood a real chance of winning the national title. They vowed to carry last year’s success into this season and they’ve done that.
Winning the Pac-12 championship and then the NCAA regional in convincing fashion have set them up for one last push.
“The results speak for themselves,” Utah coach Tom Farden said. “The scores are getting higher and there is better refinement and they are competing with an improved level of confidence. Not a lot has changed for us; we were the two seed at the Pac-12 and regionals and won so we just need to go do it again.”
NCAA GYMNASTICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
At Fort Worth, Texas
All times Mountain
When • Friday
TV • ESPN2
(Rankings and national qualifying scores noted with teams)
Session 1, 11 a.m. • No. 2 Michigan (395.9), No. 3 Florida (395.644), No. 6 California (395.363), No. 8 Minnesota (394.856)
Session 2, 4 p.m. • No. 1 Oklahoma (396.119), No. 4 LSU (395.563), No. 5 Utah (395.481), No. 7 Alabama (395.1113)
Top two teams from each session advance to Saturday’s finals at 1:30 p.m., which will be televised by ABC
The Utes compete against Oklahoma, LSU and Alabama in their morning session, while Michigan, Florida, Cal and Minnesota compete in the afternoon. The top two teams from each semifinal advance to Saturday’s final.
Even though the emphasis is on winning the national title, Farden did take a few minutes to acknowledge the Utes’ accomplishments. Notably missing from the final field are teams like Georgia and UCLA, past winners who are constants in the national scene.
The Utes are the only team to qualify for the national championships every year and are celebrating their 45th appearance.
“Alabama and Florida didn’t make it in 2019 and this year Georgia and UCLA didn’t make it [this year],” he said. “Those are blue bloods and keen observers of college gymnastics are going to say, what a minute, that is a lot of history right there and they didn’t make it. The competition right now is really challenging.”
Getting to the finals is a whole other level of challenging. The Utes acknowledge as good a performance as they had during the regionals, the meet remained close. Friday’s session should be more of the same considering Oklahoma is the defending champion and LSU has been one of the Sooners’ biggest threats for several seasons now.
The Utes will start on the balance beam, Oklahoma starts on the uneven bars, LSU the floor and Alabama the vault. The Utes started on beam the first day of the NCAA regionals, opening with a 49.55.
Although scores tend to be lower in the first rotation, Farden likes the order for his team.
“Starting on our strongest event, we are going to set the tone over there,” he said. “After that, our floor is at a championship level. Vault we have to do better on our landings but we are making strides on that and our bars.”
It’s time to see if those strides can match the team’s hopes.