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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah gymnastics team had a tremendous regular season. It was undefeated going into the last meet of the year, but the Georgia gymnastics team ended its streak, defeating the Utes 197.45-197.275.
The Red Rocks met the Gym Dogs again Saturday at the Berkeley regional. Once again Utah (196.575) couldn’t capture a victory against Georgia (197.025), placing second.
“The team was motivated to have another shot at Georgia and for whatever reason it didn’t happen,” said co-head coach Megan Marsden.
Georgia Dabritz, who won every event and the all-around at the Berkeley regional, said she thinks a lot of her fellow gymnasts let each other affect what they were doing.
“Saturday was a bit weird for us. I stayed the same mentally, as I would any other day, despite what everyone else was doing,” said Dabritz.
Marsden said she believes the Utes could’ve won the regional without their flaws in the first half of the meet.
“Without our mistakes we'd have an extra eight tenths and one of the top scores in the country,” Marsden added.
The team was motivated to have another shot at Georgia and for whatever reason it didn't happen.
–Megan Marsden
The entire team will need to get back to their usual mindsets as they have yet another chance against the Berkeley regional winner. Both teams have advanced to the NCAA Championship semifinals.
But instead of thinking of the what-ifs, the Red Rocks are focusing on what they can do and refrain from “shooting themselves in the foot.”
One thing the Utes can fix is getting back to their usual bars routine. Coming into the regional meet, they ranked first in the event, but were outscored on bars during both competitions against Georgia.
“I know exactly why they beat us on bars at regionals,” said Marsden.
Both Breanna Hughes and Kassandra Lopez over-swung the top bar on their last handstand, resulting in scores of 9.625 and 9.65 respectively.
“I’m guessing they (Georgia) hit a lot of hand stands and stuck most of their dismounts. We need to do that,” added Marsden.
In order for Utah to succeed in the semifinals, Dabritz said the team needs to learn from Saturday’s performance.
“It starts with not beating ourselves. That’s what we did this weekend. We made mistakes that were uncharacteristic. If we go out there and do what we do normally, we’ll be fine and come out on the top three and go to the Super Six,” said Dabritz.
Utah will take on Georgia for a third time in Semifinal I in Fort Worth, Texas, April 17. Other Semifinal I teams include Florida, Stanford, Michigan and UCLA.
