Red Rocks may get star recruit year early

In May 2006, Canadian Olympic gymnast Gael Mackie made a verbal commitment to attend the University of Utah with the understanding that she would defer her arrival until after the 2008 Olympics next August.

When she finally made her recruiting visit to Utah on March 9 to watch the Utes hosting No. 1-ranked Florida, she was kicking herself that she'd have to wait till fall 2008.

"Ever since my recruiting trip, I've been itching to get down there. It was such a long wait," Mackie said Thursday by phone from her home near Vancouver, British Columbia. "I'd always think, 'Oh, I wish I could go this year.'"

She may get her wish come January, if she can finish up three high school courses quickly enough, and if her high school, provincial government, the NCAA Clearing House, Utah's admissions office and the U.S. Embassy will all expedite things.

That's because two weeks ago, Ute freshman Sarah Shire decided to transfer closer to home to the University of Missouri, so Utah coach Greg Marsden suddenly had an available scholarship. He felt obligated to offer it to Mackie, though he had no idea at the time that she'd actually want to come this soon. He said NCAA rules say that when someone signs a letter-of-intent, the scholarship is to be for the next available year. By mutual agreement, Mackie originally deferred but was now anxious to reverse that.

"To have that actually open up like that, it just made it so exciting, to make it that much sooner," she said.

Mackie — who just began training again Tuesday after six weeks out with a stress fracture to her right shin that caused her to miss the Canadian World Championship trials — is determined to be a 2008 Ute. "I'm super-motivated. I just won't allow myself to not finish (coursework) on time," she said.

She hopes to complete that by October, and Marsden said he thinks they'll know by November or December if she can make it. She must be in school when classes start Jan. 7.

She's already doing schoolwork by correspondence. When it's complete, she'll have to take final exams, and the school must grade and post them on her transcript, and then the provincial government could grant a diploma. The NCAA Clearing House would have to evaluate and certify the diploma and pass it along to U. admissions, which would issue a form that would allow her to ask the U.S. Embassy for a student visa to allow Mackie to enter this country.

Assuming each step might take a week or more, the 2008 Ute debut of Mackie — who still would plan to be on the Canadian team should it qualify for the Beijing Games — is a definite maybe.

POST UP: Senior-to-be Ashley Postell is still working on perfecting her international-style routines with an eye toward perhaps making the 2008 U.S. Olympic team, but a rolled ankle slowed her down for about three weeks and probably kept her from attempting to qualify for the 2007 national championships. Her vault, beam and floor routines, said Marsden, had come along to the point that she might have tried for one of the qualifying meets until the injury. Her intention was always to take it slowly and see how far she got before attempting a meet, and the 2002 world beam champion is still in that mode but now won't do any elite competitions until after the 2008 Ute season next spring, Marsden said.

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E-mail: lham@desnews.com