Utah gymnastics: Seniors get ready for Huntsman farewell


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SALT LAKE CITY — Friday’s meet between fourth-ranked Utah and fifth-ranked Michigan will be the last regular season meet at the Huntsman Center. Utah's gymnastics team (10-0, 6-0 Pac-12) has four seniors on its roster and each of them cannot believe the time has already come.

“I don’t quite have the right words for it,” said co-captain Tory Wilson.

All four are first-team All-Americans. Tri-captains Georgia Dabritz, Corrie Lothrop and Wilson are Pac-12 champions and team MVPs. Becky Tutka will enter this week’s meet as the school’s record holder for consecutive routines completed without a fall.

“These girls have come a long way,” co-head coach Megan Marsden said of the senior class.

Marsden said she recalls Wilson and Dabritz coming into the program with weaknesses. Wilson’s was the need to have better shapes, knees and feet. For Dabritz, it was consistently staying on the equipment during meets.

“She (Dabritz) has gone all the way to the final event with dealing with that. Now she’s a champion. She has scores as good as anyone in the country,” Marsden added.


She (Dabritz) has gone all the way to the final event with dealing with that. Now she's a champion. She has scores as good as anyone in the country.

–Megan Marsden


The coach also reflected on what Lothrop and Tutka bring to the team. “Corrie has been a rock to this team since the moment she arrived. She has been our quiet leader even when injured for a year. Becky is one who brings a lot of spirit to this program. She has from the beginning, and she’s still doing that. She has a lot of school pride and knows how to get the girls in an upbeat feeling on meet night.”

The four are awash in awards. Dabritz is a 10-time All-American, three-time NCAA regional champion and four-time Pac-12 champion. She is the 2014 Pac-12 Specialist of the Year, 2013 NCAA uneven bars runner-up and 2012 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year. The two-time Utah co-MVP has six career 10.0s — bars (4), vault (1), floor (1) — and 72 career victories.

Lothrop, a five-time All-American, is the 2012 Pac-12 all-around champion. She has 25 career victories, eight of them in the all-around, and has hit 163 of 168 career routines.

Four-time All-American Tutka is part of the 2014 first-team All-American on floor. As mentioned earlier, she is the school record holder for the most consecutive routines without a fall. She has hit all 75 of her career routines, breaking the old mark (72) by Stephanie McAllister from 2010-11.

Wilson, also a five-time All-American, is the 2014 Pac-12 Gymnast of the Year, 2014 Pac-12 all-around champion and 2013 NCAA regional vault champion. She has two career 10.0s on vault.

The seniors don’t rely on rituals for their success. In fact, they say they aren’t superstitious. However, Lothrop and Wilson tend to go to Subway before meets and Tutka says she needs to have a big bow to wear in her hair. Dabritz’s habit doesn’t come before meets, but rather during weekly trainings.

“There’s a goofy thing this year where I have to wear my shorts on backwards in the training room. I don’t know how it stuck. I think I accidentally did it once and the team said I had to do it the rest of the season,” said Dabritz.

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And the awards aren’t the gymnasts’ favorite part of their collegiate career. Lothrop said her favorite part each season is meeting the freshmen. Wilson’s best memory of this season thus far is their big win against Stanford.

“Getting our 198 was definitely a highlight of this season. It was something we’ve been working for and know we can achieve. We can definitely do it again,” said Wilson.

Dabritz and Tutka agreed that competing in the Huntsman Center is their favorite.

“Every home meet has been one of my favorite things. I take a step back and take it all in because I know I only have a few more times in the Huntsman,” Dabritz said.

When asked why they chose Utah, the seniors had one answer in common: the fans. During the past four years, the seniors have competed in front of five of the top 10 Utah home crowds, including the NCAA record — 15,558 vs. Florida March 4, 2011. Utah’s last home meet against Stanford brought in 15,202 fans and tied for the seventh largest attendance in its history.

“The thing that really drew me here was the 15,000 amazing fans that we get,” Tutka said.

Utah, which is averaging 14,682 fans at home, needs a crowd of 13,154 against Michigan to break its school and NCAA gymnastics single-season attendance record of 14,376 set last year.

The Red Rocks hope to fill the Huntsman Center for their last regular season home meet and the Pac-12 championships, which will be held March 21. Utah replaced Arizona State as the host school for conference championships due to a potential conflict with women’s basketball in Tempe, Arizona.

“Friday will be hard, but now that we have Pac-12s here, it helps to know this isn’t the last time I’m going to be in the Huntsman,” said Lothrop.

Lothrop and Wilson are listed as the only gymnasts to compete in the all-around lineup this week. Dabritz is scheduled to compete in three events (vault, bars and floor), while Tutka is in the floor lineup.

“It’s something Greg and I have gone through a lot of years now and it’s never easy to see your seniors go. You have to remind yourself that new faces will be coming in the summer that replace them and we start at it again,” said Marsden.

A pre-meet ceremony will honor the seniors before they take on Michigan (8-1, 5-0 Big Ten) Friday at 7 p.m.

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