Memorable season for runner-up Utes

After the most difficult regular season Utah gymnastics coach Greg Marsden can remember in his 32 years at the school, the sun came out and the postseason was one of the more memorable of the decade.

Still no NCAA title — the last of Utah's 10 national championships came in 1995. Halfway through the 2007 Super Six finals, this team that couldn't get it right in the regular season was tied for the lead.

As in the regular season, Utah had problems on one event, bars, but it came roaring back in the hardest place of all, beam, to overtake Florida, the team that ranked No. 1 most of the year, and seize its second straight second-place trophy April 27 in the Huntsman Center. Georgia completed a three-peat.

It was Utah's seventh second-place showing. In 17 of Utah's 32 seasons, it's been No. 1 or 2.

Yes, second place is first loser — but for a team that wondered if it would even qualify for the postseason, a team with six freshmen, several of them injured, recovering from surgery/needing surgery or otherwise out of shape — the achievement has the Utes looking eagerly toward 2008.

"It was tough but rewarding at the end," said Marsden.

Added Kristina Baskett, "We're not going to relax at all. We have a lot of work to do. Someone's got to catch Georgia. I mean, why not us?"

Freshman Annie DiLuzio agreed, buoyed up by taking second in NCAA vaulting. "We want to be the best," she said.

It would be a bit of irony because 2008 NCAAs are at Georgia. Georgia has won the last two NCAAs at Utah, and Utah's last title was at Georgia in 1995.

And because Utah's U-turn in 2007 probably began at Georgia on Feb. 16. That was the Utes' lowest-scoring, biggest-losing night of the year. Embarrassed, they came home to beat Michigan in Salt Lake City only to lose senior captain Nicolle Ford for a week to an ankle injury that ultimately helped heal the whole team.

"The low point was the Georgia meet," Marsden said. "It began to change then, and I think at Nebraska, when 'Queenie' and Annie (Achilles tendinitis) weren't with us, some people stepped up. That was another kind of milestone in getting better."

Without the captain, junior Katie Kivisto became a leader, and when teammates listened, her confidence soared. The team had a meeting that night in Lincoln, and others emerged, like redshirt freshman walk-on Beth Rizzo, who had earned the right to talk by earning a place in the floor lineup, and Sandy junior Jessica Duke, a quiet, behind-the-scenes force.