Utah Utes gymnastics: Deetscreek hopes to bounce back

PROVO — One of Utah's most consistent gymnasts ever, Ute senior Jamie Deetscreek is not used to messing up as she did last Friday at Michigan.

After two events, she was pulled from the lineup in a meet that produced not just a loss but the team's lowest score of the season, 195.10.

By Monday — in preparation for Friday night's meet at BYU's Marriott Center at 7 — Deetscreek was back in the gym with a vengeance.

"She certainly has come in this week ?— not that she's been training poorly at all — but she came in this week with a new, reinvigorated fire about her," said coach Greg Marsden Thursday.

He had publicly criticized her a couple of times, which he said was both just telling the truth and a way to light that fire under her. If she's upset with him, "I want her to be. She'd better be.

"This was an exceptionally good week of training for her. Hopefully that will translate into a meet," he said.

Deetscreek, who went all last season with just one miss, sounded frustrated with herself. "I think it was pretty obvious that I wasn't mentally there at all," she said of a night that saw her score 8.05 on bars — she had difficulty getting used to new grips because the old ones had broken — and then 9.70 on vault before Marsden removed her from the lineup.

"I don't want to make excuses because there really was no excuse for me to act like that and just have a meltdown," she said.

Miss Consistency didn't know how to react. "That bar routine was just so ridiculous, embarrassing and terrible that I didn't even know how to bounce back from that, and then vault came," she said.

It will be big if Deetscreek can bounce back because the ninth-ranked, 5-2 Utes will have several people out or working with little training against No. 31, 2-7 BYU.

Junior Jacq Johnson, who's never done more than two events, will be forced into the all-around, and freshman Meg Whitney will make her collegiate debut on vault and floor.

Senior Beth Rizzo tore a toe tendon in warmups at Michigan but had her best night of the season. Freshman Katelyn Mohr re-aggravated the stress fractures in her back at Michigan. She had an injection Wednesday. Both are out for at least this meet.

Sophomore Stephanie McAllister has a second-degree sprained ankle from the Michigan meet. She didn't know when it happened, but it swelled Saturday. She probably will be limited to bars, maybe beam.

And senior Annie DiLuzio had an eye infection that prevented her from wearing contacts Monday and Tuesday, so she couldn't practice until Thursday. She is expected to compete.

Marsden said he's excited for Johnson and Whitney to get this opportunity, and the injury situation has "the potential to make us a stronger team down the road."

College gymnastics

Utah at BYU,

Today, 7 p.m.,

Marriott Center