Utah gymnastics squad lands Oklahoma athlete

Cortni Beers, a four-year elite and two-year member of the U.S. national gymnastics team from Tulsa, Okla., said she verbally accepted University of Utah coach Greg Marsden's offer last week of a full scholarship to begin school in fall 2008.

She toured the U.'s facilities in January while at the Crystal Cup at Olympus Gymnastics in Sandy (she was fourth all-around) and knows current Ute freshmen Annie DiLuzio and Sarah Shire, "so the decision was pretty easy to make," Beers said by phone Saturday.

"It looked like I'd feel comfortable there," added the senior-to-be at Union High School in Tulsa who hopes to again qualify at Bela Karolyi's gym ranch in Texas for the August USA championships in San Jose, Calif. She has one international meet under her belt, the Friendship Meet against Japan in Houston in 2005. She was third all-around and second on balance beam, her favorite event because "I've just always been good at it."

At the 2005 Visa U.S. Championships, she was 10th all-around and seventh on beam in the junior international elite division, and in 2004, she was 12th. She did not vault at the 2006 nationals but was 13th on beam, 15th on bars and 17th on floor as a senior international elite.

Beers has an older brother at the University of Oklahoma and an older sister at Missouri, but neither is a college athlete. Her parents are Reese and Lora Beers. She trains at Krafft Academy of Gymnastics in Tulsa and was put into gym classes at age 4 because "My parents said I was trying to kill myself on the swing set," Beers said.

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