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SALT LAKE CITY â Coming off a third-place finish at NCAA Championships earlier this year, the Red Rocks released a difficult schedule for their upcoming season.
Utah gymnastics' 2022 schedule will include 11 meets, with featured meets against out-of-conference contenders Oklahoma, LSU and Minnesota, in addition to a seven-meet conference slate. In total, the Red Rocks will contend against four of the seven other teams in last season's NCAA Championships.
"We have an extremely challenging schedule this year," head coach Tom Farden said in a statement. "Finding out where you stand on the national level before the postseason begins is crucial."
The Red Rocks will open the season with a Red Rocks Preview on Friday, Dec. 17 at the Huntsman Center, which will be the first time fans of the Red Rocks will get a chance to see the gymnasts in action at the Huntsman Center since the 2020 season that was disrupted by a global pandemic.
The season officially kicks off in a multi-team meet dubbed the "Best of Utah" at the Maverik Center on Friday, Jan. 7, featuring BYU, Southern Utah, Utah and Utah State. And the first home meet of the season will be on Friday, Jan. 14 against Oklahoma.
Utah will host five meets at the Huntsman Center, including Oklahoma, Arizona State (Jan. 21), Stanford (Jan. 29), Oregon State (Feb. 18) and Minnesota (March 4), and will have five road meets, including UCLA (Feb. 4), California (Feb. 12), Washington (Feb. 21), Arizona (Feb. 25) and the regular-season finale at LSU (March 11).
"These nonconference meets will be very exciting and we are beyond thrilled to welcome Oklahoma and Minnesota to the Huntsman Center. There is nothing like the Huntsman Center in all of NCAA women's sports and our athletes cannot wait to return to the 15,000-plus crowds that they missed so much last season!"
The NCAA regionals will begin on Wednesday, March 30, with regional finals on April 2 and the NCAA Championships April 14-16 in Fort Worth, Texas.
The Red Rocks added three Olympians to the roster over the summer, including Team USA's Grace McCallum and alternate Kara Eaker, and Great Britain's Amelie Morgan. Three-time Junior Olympic National Championships qualifier Sage Thompson from Skyridge High also joined the program as a freshman.
On Sunday, Utah got a commitment from five-star gymnast Elizabeth Gantner, who is considered the top recruit for the 2023 class. Gantner originally committed to Georgia before announcing her decision to come to Utah.
Gantner, however, has yet to sign a letter of intent, but can when her respective recruiting class is open to the NCAA signing period.
