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(Press release) - The University of Utah gymnastics team received three commitments today, signing a Senior International Elite, a World Championships competitor and a Junior Olympian. Katelyn Mohr (Carmichael, Calif.), Chloe Sims (Brisbane, Australia) and Meg Whitney (Mesa, Ariz.) plan to join the Utes in the fall of 2009.
The trio will join a team that has won 10 national championships and has finished as the NCAA runner-up for the last three years. Utah is also the NCAA's gymnastics attendance leader and has averaged nearly 11,000 fans for the past 17 years.
Mohr, who qualified as a Senior International Elite in 2008, is a three-time USA National Championships qualifier (2006, 2007 and 2008). She won the all-around at the 2007 WOGA Classic, the 2008 California Classic (Level 10) and the 2008 Brestyans Invite. She also placed first on vault, bars and floor at the 2008 California Classic and won every event at the 2008 Brestyans Invite.
The Carmichael, Calif., native trains at Byers Gymnastics for coaches Eli and Debbie Rodriguez and Mas Watanabe. The daughter of Laura and Timothy Mohr attends Horizon Charter School.
Says Utah head coach Greg Marsden, "Katelyn is a very powerful, explosive athlete who comes from the same club as (current Ute junior) Annie DiLuzio. The athletes from Byers are always well coached and come to college with great technique. Katelyn can help us on all four events, but her athleticism will make her extremely competitive on floor and vault."
Sims competed for Australia at the 2007 World Championships. Her international portfolio includes a first-place all-around finish at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, a gold medal at the 2005 Australia vs. China duel and a first-place finish on vault in a meet against the Ukraine.
She competed at the Australian National Championships from 2001-07, placing third in the all-around at the 2007 National Championships. She won a total of nine individual titles at the national championships, including all four events and the all-around at the 2001 nationals.
The native of Brisbane, Australia, attends high school at Moreton Bay—also her club, where she is coached by Olga and Sasha Beloousov. Her parents are Trudy and Bill Sims.
"Chloe comes to us with a wealth of international experience," says Marsden. "She is powerful, but at the same time, elegant. Chloe has an infectious personality that shows through in her performance."
Whitney, a member of the Junior Olympic National Team, was the 2008 national all-around runner-up. She placed sixth on bars and vault at the 2007 J.O. Nationals and was the 2007 and 2008 Region I vault champion. Whitney has won three straight Arizona Level 10 all-around championships (2006-08) and was a member of the state champion Level 10 team all three of those years.
Originally a Salt Lake City native, Whitney now lives in Mesa, Ariz., where she is an honor student (ranks in the top three-percent of her class) at Red Mountain High School. Whitney trains at Desert Devils Gymnastics and she is coached by former Utah All-America gymnast Shelly (Schaerrer) Eaton, Geoff Eaton, Kristin Fanning and Wes Jones. Her parents are Laura Baker and David Whitney.
"Meg is an athlete who is just beginning to blossom and whose best gymnastics is still ahead," says Marsden. "Her early years were spent in Toronto competing at lower levels. Since moving to Arizona and competing for the Desert Devils, she has improved significantly over the past three years. Although she has gone for awhile, this is a local girl who is coming home."
(From the University of Utah)
