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SALT LAKE CITY — If there’s any luck in college gymnastics, the Red Rocks have it.
The fourth-ranked Utah gymnastics team will face some of the nation’s best teams in Friday’s NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championship afternoon semifinal. Utah’s side of the bracket includes reigning champion and first-ranked Oklahoma, No. 6 UCLA, No. 7 Denver, No. 11 Washington and No. 12 Oregon State.
The good news for the Utes is that they drew the Olympic rotation for the meet. It’s a favorable rotation order because it’s the order teams use when competing at home. Utah will begin its competition on vault before spending the second rotation on a bye, followed by bars, beam, another bye and floor.
“There’s nothing too negative about it,” Utah co-head coach Megan Marsden said of the Red Rocks’ competition order. “We’ll be able to get nerves out on vault, which is easy to go after, then head to bars and be calmer.”
Marsden added that it’s easier on the team to compete in the sixth rotation, too. The gymnasts will know exactly what they need to do to advance to the next round, unlike in regionals where they had to sit and watch their opponents’ scores rise during a sixth rotation bye.
Another perk of the Red Rocks’ rotation is they’ll follow UCLA and Oklahoma, making it easier for judges to compare the teams. While Utah starts on vault, the Bruins will start on a bye before bars and the Sooners will start on a bye before floor.
“We don’t know what it’ll take to place in the top three and go to the Super Six,” said Marsden. “We just need to hit 24-of-24 routines, then see if our scores will let us advance. It’ll be icing on the cake if all goes according to plan.”
A showdown of the nation’s best all-around gymnasts will take place in the afternoon semifinal. Oklahoma’s Maggie Nichols has dominated the rankings, owning the first spot throughout the regular season. Utah’s MyKayla Skinner has held her own in second place for most of the year. Five more of the nation’s top 10 all-arounders join them, including Oklahoma’s Chayse Capps (No. 3), UCLA’s Madison Kocian (No. 5T), Utah’s Baely Rowe (No. 5T), Oregon State’s Kaytianna McMillian (No. 9) and Denver’s Maddie Karr (No. 10).
While there are plenty of talented individual gymnasts in the meet, Marsden admits that the sport is team-oriented and star athletes help make the team better, such as the Utes’ own Skinner.
“MyKayla has proven she is one of the nation’s best. Her performances help the team, which is what college gymnastics is all about,” said Marsden.
Another bonus for the Red Rocks is that they’ve already competed against all their Semifinal 1 opponents except for Oklahoma. In the regular season, Utah topped conference rivals UCLA and Washington. Oregon State was the only Pac-12 team to beat the Utes in the regular season. McMillian scored a 9.925 on floor as the meet’s last routine to edge Utah, 196.550-196.525. Utah earned revenge when it won the Pac-12 championship five weeks later.
Denver also faced Utah twice this year, coming just short of the Red Rocks’ score both times. The team visited Utah in a quad-meet held in Week 3, then again in regional competition where the Pioneers were the runner-up to the Utes.
“I think our fans prefer that we compete against familiar teams we’ve seen throughout the season, but we don’t really think it weighs that much. There’s no defense in gymnastics,” Marsden said.
Semifinal 1 begins at 11 a.m. MDT Friday and will be televised on ESPN2. Semifinal 2 — featuring No. 2 LSU, No. 3 Florida, No. 5 Michigan, No. 8 Alabama, No. 9 Georgia and No. 10 Nebraska — begins at 6 p.m. MDT and will be live on ESPNU before changing mid-meet to ESPN at 7 p.m. MDT. ESPN3 and WatchESPN.com will also stream the meets live and include video of every routine.
The three top-scoring teams from each semifinal will advance to Saturday’s Super Six, where the national champion will be crowned.
