USU, SUU no match for the Utes

Sophomore Daria Bijak hit her career-best 9.925 beam after falling in the 30-second warm-ups, when she tries to go through all her skills and rushes. In competition, she does the skills at normal speed. She scored 39.225 all-around, while Baskett had 39.525, her second-best of the season.

The Utes have "85-90 percent" of their A material in at this point, and even though there are a few more upgrades, they'll mainly hone things from here. "Now it's a matter of execution," Marsden said.

The Ute vault set off the crowd at the beginning. No one scored lower than 9.8, and Baskett drew 9.975 and Postell her second perfect 10 of the season, this time with her Yurchenko full. This time, both judges flashed 10.0 immediately. The last 10 she got, one judge put up a 9.975 and then raised a 10 when she saw the other score.

The 49.50 vault set got the house rocking, and it stayed that way all night, and the gymnasts have noticed. Postell said all the home crowds have been louder than she remembers in other years and Baskett noted how the crowd is interactive with the gymnasts more than ever now.

"I'm just excited because we continue to show up and make improvements," said Marsden, adding the team hit 28 of 28 routines, including the four exhibitions, even with Nina Kim (39.55 all-arounder) sitting out with a mid-foot sprain. She should be back soon, perhaps at UCLA.

For Southern Utah, Elise Wheeler had a 9.825 floor and 9.8 vault. For the Aggies, Nicole Simoneau scored 9.825 on bars.

NOTES: Three former Ute gymnasts are continuing their athletics as members of the Utah Blaze stunt team — Nicolle Ford, Anabeth Eberle and Gritt Hofmann are doing mainly work off mini-tramps. ... Ute freshman Gael Mackie score 9.75 in the first exhibition vault of her career. ... Six Ute football players were in the audience, sans shirts, vigorously leading cheers with chests painted with the letters "FB (heart) gym." Among them were Robert Johnson, Justin Taplin-Ross and Justin Jones. Directly behind them was the Utes volleyball team, also cheering, and with signs "Utah volleyball overs the Red Rocks" and "Utah volleyball loves Flippin' Birds (SUU T-Birds)." Men's basketball was also represented.