Utah Utes gymnasts to host Nebraska

SALT LAKE CITY — Ever since 1997, when the NCAA women's gymnastics championships were staged at Florida — and Nebraska won a tiebreaker with Utah that put the 'Huskers in the Super Six team finals and left the Utes out of the finals and in seventh place — the two programs have been friendly rivals.

Well, the 2010 NCAA championships will be at Florida again in April, and Nebraska will be in Utah's Huntsman Center tonight at 7 for Cancer Awareness Night, when fans wearing pink will get free general admission.

Ute coach Greg Marsden feels the competitive juices.

"They're the ones — two times (at the NCAAs) we were tied, they went in ahead of us. Either them or us, Super Six," he said.

But, in truth, ninth-ranked Utah (6-2) has more to worry about than 11th-ranked Nebraska (13-2), though Marsden does point to this meet as one of those times when his team must test itself against good competition.

"We have team goals, and each individual has goals, regardless of who we're competing against," said fifth-year Ute senior Beth Rizzo. "It's just, concentrate on the goals that we have set up for ourselves rather than who we're competing against because, ultimately, each competition is just preparing for regionals and nationals. It's not so much who we're competing against now."

Adds junior Kyndal Robarts, coming off her career all-around high of 39.375 last week at BYU, "We try to go into each meet knowing what we need to do for us and not focusing on the opponent, because that doesn't really get you anywhere.

"Last week was a step forward, even if beam wasn't where we hoped it would be, and this week will be two steps forward."

Marsden is perplexed "because I feel like we've made some progress, but then we have two falls on beam, and instead of going 196.50 we go 195.50 or whatever it was.

"So I feel like we're close. We've just got to put it together."

Beam has been the sticking point the last two weeks. The Utes counted beam falls at both Michigan and BYU, resulting in two of their three lowest total scores of the season, 195.10 and 195.525.

Hoping to stem that, the coaches have altered sophomore Stephanie McAllister's routine slightly.

"Beam is more a mental event than any of them," said co-coach Megan Marsden, who runs the team's beam event. "You can start to over-think and start to lose your confidence, and I think that's where Steph is."