4 gym teams at Utah tonight feature now, next generation

The Now and The Next.

Tonight's quadrangular gymnastics meet at the University of Utah's Huntsman Center at 7 will find three in-state teams and Arkansas — making its first visit to the state — relying on their proven athletes but also showing a glimpse of their futures as all four programs have at least six freshmen, many of them expected to contribute now that it's February.

The No. 3-ranked, 3-0 Utes plan to use a season-high four of their six freshmen to count tonight. No. 13, 1-7 Arkansas has two strong all-around freshmen in a class of six and used freshmen in a dozen routines last week; No. 22, 4-2 BYU has nine freshmen with as many as 10 routines expected tonight; and No. 39, 3-2 Southern Utah used 10 freshman routines last week and has a class of seven.

"Our freshmen have both met and exceeded expectations this year," said Mark Cook, who with wife and co-coach Rene Cook started the Arkansas program five seasons ago after making Stanford a national power. Last season, the Gym Backs went to the NCAA Championships in just their fourth year. Freshmen Casey Jo Magee and Michelle Stout are the team's top all-arounders, and Magee ranks tied for 13th nationally on balance beam.

Utah's largest-ever next-generation class was slowed by injuries, illness and conditioning slips, but coach Greg Marsden expects to use freshmen Daria Bijak on bars for the second time, Annie DiLuzio in her usual three events and Sarah Shire for the second time on beam while Shire debuts on vault and redshirt freshman Beth Rizzo makes her debut to count on floor.

Shire was an emergency replacement at Minnesota Saturday for an ill senior Nicolle Ford on beam and scored 9.8 with only 10 minutes' notice, which she thought was good as she didn't have time to get nervous. "I know I can do better," she said. She developed bone-chip problems in an elbow during preseason training, losing conditioning, and now does beam skills with one arm, which improves difficulty level.

Southern Utah coach Scott Bauman has freshmen Shayla Garcia and Elise Wheeler as all-arounders and Lindsey Schultz in two events, and BYU coach Brad Cattermole said he can see using three youngsters on bars and floor and two each on vault and beam.

Bauman and Cattermole, whose teams have never met Arkansas, have seen rough early seasons largely because of youth, but both express great confidence and fondness for those youngsters because of strong desire and work ethic.

"This is an awfully fun team to work with. They all want to be really good," Cattermole said. "You see them progress and get better. I've been pleased with them."