Utah Utes gymnastics: Freshman cracks lineup

After straining an Achilles tendon a week before the Utah gymnastics season began in January, freshman Meg Whitney spent seven weeks watching her teammates. She was starting to think she might not get into coach Greg Marsden's lineup this season.

"All the lineups were starting to be, like, set. I just didn't know if he was going to want to put me in rather than someone else, who has already been competing and had those meets under their belt," she said.

Then came injuries to Stephanie McAllister (sprained ankle), Beth Rizzo (torn toe tendon) and fellow freshman Katelyn Mohr (back flareup), and Whitney was suddenly on vault and floor last Friday at BYU. And she could compete again this Friday night at 7 when No. 9 Utah welcomes No. 11 Nebraska to the Huntsman Center.

"It was good to get out there and compete again," said Whitney. But the real benefit may be to her outlook. "It definitely makes me more motivated in practice because I have something that I know I can look forward to," she said.

Whitney popped a 9.80 in her collegiate debut, vaulting long but a little low — something she plans to resolve. "I think I just need to work on changing my block (pushoff from the vault table) so I can go up a little more," she said of her best event.

On floor, one judge devalued her to a 9.90 start value for her middle pass. "I think I tucked it around a little bit, and they could have taken off of my start value there, and also, one of my jumps, I think I just cheated into it a little bit, so they also could have taken off from my start value there," she said.

"I felt pretty good about my first pass and my last pass."

"I thought they were pretty tough on her on floor — which is OK," said Marsden. "There's some things we can certainly continue to work on, but she's got a really nice style and presentation out on the floor. She potentially could be very good on both those events."

Whitney was born in Salt Lake City — her 18th birthday was last Thursday — and attended Missy Marlowe's gymnastics school before moving to Toronto at age 8. She moved again to Arizona several years ago and trained at Desert Devils, where Marlowe's former Ute teammate Shelly Schaerrer Eaton was a coach.

This is the second year in a row in which Whitney started the season with an injury. Last year, she sprained an ankle at the last minute. The setback this year, she said, "was probably more discouraging."

RANKINGS: Utah's team rating stayed the same this week, while Southern Utah moved up one place to 20th, BYU fell two to 33rd and Utah State stayed 44th.