"She did some things that were out of her comfort zone. That takes the focus off you and helps you feel not this overwhelming burden of pressure that you've got to carry the team," he said.

That transformation was most evident on NCAA event-finals night when Ford nearly pulled out of vault. She is so scared of vaulting that, since the team wasn't involved, she wanted to scratch after running through her two warmups. Postell shook Ford's shoulders and asked the senior if she wanted everyone to think of her in her last competitive moment as being "a baby." Ford did both vaults and placed 12th of 18.

Then Postell led floor until the last two competitors, who surpassed her score while she was preparing to compete on beam. Postell won beam, her first NCAA title after back-to-back all-around silvers, and took third on floor and seventh on bars.

"I hope she'll use what she's learned this year and continue that approach," Marsden said of Postell, who had pressured herself into regular-season errors, as did Ford. "I hope a lot of people recognize what happened and are determined to continue that."

DiLuzio said watching the upperclassmen deal with the year helped her. "Learning from all the older girls ... I definitely have more confidence." And doing well in the NCAAs, "It's definitely motivation. This championship was full of good gymnastics. Everywhere you looked it was something big and something good, and that's even more motivation."

Postell was named Ute MVP at Friday's team banquet. Kivisto was most inspirational, Rizzo most improved and Baskett got the Coaches' Award for combining academics and athletics.

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E-mail: lham@desnews.com