Injuries, illness slowing U. team

The No. 2-ranked University of Utah gymnastics team that begins its season Friday night at 7 in the Huntsman Center with No. 5 UCLA (1-0) had exactly three completely healthy gymnasts as it practiced Monday afternoon, and one of them has never competed in the NCAA.

Sophomore NCAA bars champion Kristina Baskett, junior Jessica Duke of Sandy and redshirt freshman Beth Rizzo, who could be pressed into the first action of her career Friday on floor, were the only ones not injured, ill or both Monday.

Junior Ashley Postell on Friday injured the same heel in the same way that she did two years ago as a freshman at the NCAA championships. That took her two to three weeks to recover from, said coach Greg Marsden, calling her "50-50" to compete in the season opener.

Senior captain Nicolle Ford has cartilage damage in her left hip, junior Katie Kivisto and sophomore Nina Kim have been quite ill, and several others are still trying to get over problems they've had for a couple of months.

Utah also lost one of its freshmen when Chelsey Coleman left the team just before Christmas. She will not be back, said Marsden, unable to say anything else except that she would not have been ready to compete in the early season.

"It's a fine line we're walking right now," said Marsden. "Since Christmas, for whatever reason, we've acquired a lot of problems."

He recently railed on the freshmen for not improving through the fall semester of training, though he said Monday that they accepted his challenge to come back from Christmas break in better shape, and they have. But even those athletes who were ready to perform before the break have had setbacks since.

Marsden said the problem with the freshmen wasn't unusual. "It's being away from home. Every freshman does that. It's just that we have five. It's half the team."

CAPTAIN FORD: Ford is the team's only senior.

"It's hard. It's hard being the lone captain, too," Ford said of a duty she shared last year with senior Kristen Riffanacht, now an assistant coach. "I'm supposed to know everything, and I don't."

Postell and Kivisto are helping, and Ford bounces things off both of them.

"Being the only senior, I like it. I like the attention part of it," Ford said. "But it's just hard when they're all so young."

Going it alone means she has to help others get up when they're having bad days, even though she might be having one herself.