National stage: Utah serving as host for first time since 1999

Utah gymnastics coach Greg Marsden was seated next to Rhonda Faehn, coach of No. 1-ranked Florida, at Wednesday afternoon's press conference for the 2007 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships that begin at 1 p.m. today in the Huntsman Center at the U.

The moderator called for questions, but Marsden interrupted, acting as though he were on a long-distance cell-phone call.

"Hello, Urban? Yeah, yeah. Well, I know. I wish you could be here, too," Marsden said.

Much has been made of football coach Urban Meyer's connection with the Utes, whom he coached to a BCS-busting Fiesta Bowl appearance and victory in 2005, and of his contributions to the Gator gymnasts now that he coaches in Florida. The Gators won the 2007 national championship in football, and Meyer has often spoken publicly, even on national television, about pulling for the gymnastics team to follow the lead of recent Gator football and basketball national champions.

So, Marsden couldn't resist the co-reference.

"What? You're wearing what color? Red?" Marsden playfully asked the imaginary Meyer on the imaginary phone. Marsden was wearing that devilish grin.

"Urban — call me back later. Text me."

Marsden finished to big laughs.

"That was too easy," he said later. "I had a whole spiel ... We taught Urban everything he needed to know, so Florida should be thanking us."

Unbeaten Florida (21-0-1), whose only blemish was a tie at No. 2 Georgia (21-2-1), competes in today's 1 p.m. team preliminary session with Georgia, the two-time defending NCAA champion, and No. 3 Alabama (12-4), No. 6 Nebraska (19-4), No. 8 Oregon State (18-7) and No. 10 Oklahoma (15-3).

Utah (13-3, ranked seventh in the April 2 final regular-season poll) competes at 7 tonight against No. 4 Stanford (21-3), No. 5 LSU (13-9), No. 8 UCLA (15-6), No. 12 Michigan (17-5) and No. 14 Denver (14-7).

The three teams with the best scores from their sessions today advance to Friday night's Super Six national championships. Individual event finals are Saturday. The all-around championship will be decided by tonight.

There were probably two reasons Marsden could afford to be jovial at Wednesday's press conference:

No. 1, his team seems to have finally gotten its act together the past couple of weeks. Its 197.325 score tied Florida at the NCAA West Regional on April 14 for the best out of the six regionals that day, and the roller-coaster Utes have strung together 11 strong postseason practices, their best run of the season.