Go west, U. gymnasts — to Cal

Ute freshman Annie DiLuzio is particularly charged since she's from Folsom, Calif., near Sacramento, and her friends, family and former club-team members should be able to come and support her. "I was so happy when I found out we were going to California," she said.

In addition to getting a nearby regional that won't require a lot of travel, Utah also drew the favored Olympic rotation for the April 14 meet, meaning it will compete in the regular vault-bars-beam-floor rotation, just like in a home meet, except with two byes.

"I just think it's good because vault is an easy one to start on because the adrenaline and the excitement work for you rather than against you," said Marsden, whose team has had most of its trouble this season on the last two events, beam or floor.

But he's not overly concerned with the rotation of events now.

"The thing about regionals, and the thing that is scary about it, is if we go in have a reasonably good meet, we should be fine," Marsden said. "If you have problems, go in and really stink up an event, it doesn't matter where you are. If (any opponents) do their job and hit four events, then you're going down.

"That's what happened to UCLA last year, and Stanford. It's come close to happening to the rest of us," he said, remembering two years ago when Georgia nearly didn't qualify but won the national championship as the 12th seed that barely slipped into the finals field, and last year, when Utah advanced because other teams messed up their final events at the Michigan regional.

Utah planned to practice hard Monday and today and spend Thursday and Friday on some meet-simulation drills.

The Utes seem to be at their healthiest of the season. Freshman Sarah Shire, who bruised a knee at BYU Friday night doing an exhibition floor routine, had X-rays that proved negative Monday, and freshman Daria Bijak, who jammed her knees two weeks ago, said she is doing well.

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Gymnastics regionals

WEST REGION

April 14 at Berkeley, Calif.

Teams by regional seed

1. Nebraska

2. Utah

3. Missouri

4. Washington

5. Sacramento State

6. California

NORTH CENTRAL REGION

April 14 at Denver

Teams by regional seed

1. Georgia

2. Penn State

3. Denver

4. BYU

5. Minnesota

6. Utah State

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E-mail: lham@desnews.com