Utah freshman gymnast Stephanie Neff entered school last fall with a stress fracture in a vertebra and two bulging discs in her back. As she was recovering, she sprained a wrist. A couple weeks ago, she was so ill it was thought she had mononucleosis and that her season was done.

Weeks later, Neff, who did not have mono, was back to training so well she got into the Utes' floor lineup last Friday and scored 9.775 despite watered-down tumbling in her first competitive collegiate routine.

"It was exciting. I hope I can keep doing it," said Neff, now a possible replacement on bars Sunday afternoon at Nebraska if Nicolle Ford is out due to what is thought to be a bone-on-bone bruise in her right ankle.

Ford's X-rays Monday were negative for serious damage, but she is still using crutches part time following her crash Friday night on the first pass of her floor routine. Coach Greg Marsden indicated he might let her do bars at Nebraska but also was weighing whether to take her on the trip, depending upon her progress this week.

Neff's 22-year-old brother Steve calls his 5-foot-tall sister "Tank" for her toughness in dealing with injuries through an impressive elite career even before she got to Utah.

And in honor of "Tank" and her Ute teammates, Steve Neff, a U.S. Army Ranger now awaiting his second tour of duty in Iraq, flew a University of Utah flag embroidered with "gymnastics" on his Humvee during the first tour.

Another Ranger, Will Burke, saw the flag in Iraq and asked what connection Neff had to Ute gymnastics.

Burke asked because he is the son of Megan Marsden's cousin, Kim Burke. Megan Marsden is Utah's associate head coach and wife of coach Greg Marsden.

Megan finds it stunning that Ute gymnastics family members met up in Iraq.

Even more stunning, Burke and Neff were in the Humvee when it was blown up, but the two Ute family members and the Ute flag all survived the attack in good shape, said Stephanie Neff. "Somehow they got out without anything wrong with them.

"It puts things into perspective for me, just seeing what I am going through, or what I went through, isn't near as bad as what others go through," she said.

Burke is to be redeployed to Iraq in April, and Neff is to return to the fighting in May, said Stephanie, once he finishes classes in Georgia. He was 30 miles away from Athens, Ga., when the Utes were there April 16 but couldn't get to the Georgia meet.

She said the biggest deduction for her floor routine Friday was in the end of her final tumbling pass, so she's going to try to reinsert her double back to give her better difficulty.

TRAINING ROOM: Ford expects to be back training fairly soon "because I can move it (the ankle), and I can stand on it," even though trainer Tom Iriye has her using crutches for now.