The NCAA has come to what most gymnastics fans would consider its senses.

Practices next Wednesday, the day before the start of the 2007 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships at the University of Utah, will be open after all.

For the first time ever, the NCAA mandated closed practices prior to last Saturday's six regionals (though two regionals apparently allowed some fans in to watch anyway), and after protests arose, it said it would decide today in a conference call whether it would open the practices a week from today to fans.

Then Tuesday afternoon, the Utes received word that, well, never mind. Practices are open.

Many gym fans go to added expense to make their travel arrangements so that they can arrive in the host city a day early just to watch the workouts, which they enjoy almost as much as the meets, but at the recent regionals, a number of fans were shooed out of the venues.

But now that controversy is done, from what the Utes heard Tuesday.

"I think it's the right decision," said Utah coach Greg Marsden, who said he never got a plausible explanation why fans were kicked out of the gyms last week. First he was told the NCAA didn't want any teams to have unfair advantages. Then he was told the NCAA didn't want judges watching.

DOOZIE: Freshman Annie DiLuzio, who missed a couple mid-season meets with Achilles tendon soreness, was a big contributor to Utah's season-high 197.325 score at the West Regional at Cal Saturday, tying her career-high of 9.90 on vault and adding her second-best floor score of 0.875. She tied for third in vault and was fourth on floor.

"That was fun. When the team is doing good and even the leadoff person starts with high scores and then it just keeps building throughout the rotation, I think it makes it a lot more fun than scores going up and down," DiLuzio said Tuesday.

That sounds pretty obvious, but she's rarely experienced that since the Utes have been inconsistent throughout her college career.

That DiLuzio and other freshmen like Sarah Shire (9.80 vault, 9.825 beam), Daria Bijak (9.85 bars, 9.80 beam) and Beth Rizzo (9.825 floor) were so solid is a real positive toward nationals, said junior Ashley Postell. "We're really proud of them and excited that we can count on them.

"I think it lifts a lot off everybody, lifts a lot of weight off our shoulders."

FAN FARE: Between 80 and 100 Ute fans were at the regional, and DiLuzio said they made a contribution. "The crowd was amazing. Oh my goodness.