Utah defeated No. 1 Georgia in the Huntsman Center in the 2008 season opener and has wins over Oregon State, Michigan, UCLA and Arkansas, and its only loss was at Florida, all in the nationals field. Last year, when the Utes hosted the NCAAs, they set the scene for now by finishing a somewhat surprising second to Georgia, which won its third straight title and is favored to win a fourth this week.

"But 13 years, back at Georgia," said Marsden, "that doesn't really come into my mind much."

She does recall Traci Sommer being a freshman in '95 and the two of them looking up into the rafters looking at Georgia's championship banners in all sports as Marsden tried to calm Sommer's nerves just before the Utes won their 10th national championship in their 20th anniversary season.

"You just go do the best you can," said head coach Greg Marsden. "I don't believe in that stuff. It would be nice. We've been close a few times (seconds three times in the last 13 years, including seconds the last two years) but haven't quite gotten it done. It would be nice to get it done, but there are a lot of good teams."

He looks at the usual culprits — Georgia, Florida, Alabama, all SEC teams comfortable with the Stegeman environment — and says, "It's going to be tough for somebody like a Utah or a Michigan or any of the other contenders. I like to term it the proverbial snowball's chance in hell."

But Utah in '95 — with Metz, Sommer, Aimee Trepanier, Sandy Woolsey and Megan Caudle — wasn't favored, either. Georgia, UCLA and Alabama were the major contenders, and the Utes finished the meet on a bye with a good score, waiting to hear what the more favored teams who were still competing would do.

"It just took a lot of things falling into place. Each one of them had problems, and we wound up winning the thing sitting there and kind of watching these things that all had to happen," said Marsden. "And you wouldn't ever imagine they all would happen, but they did that night."

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