Utah Utes gymnastics: Red Rocks need to clean up to keep up

SALT LAKE CITY — The year after every summer Olympics, the rules for gymnastics change somewhat.

This is a year under a new judging code, and for a while, only the top teams were scoring in the 196-point range. Alabama had an early 197.45 that got it ranked No. 1, but for the most part, the higher-ranked clubs scored in the 196s and liked it.

"I think in the beginning everybody (judges) was trying to take the deductions (from the new scoring system), and you saw a lot of scores that were lower," said Utah coach Greg Marsden Monday.

"It looked like for a while it was going to be very difficult to get a 197. Well, all of a sudden in the last two weeks, now we're looking at (almost) 198s. Without question, there's some inflation going on."

Last weekend, No. 2 Oklahoma beat No. 1 Alabama 197.95-197.275, and No. 5 Georgia beat No. 3 UCLA 197.90-197.875.

Meanwhile, Utah — ranked ninth for the third straight week — hit its season high of 196.575 in winning at home over No. 11 Nebraska (195.725).

And even though Marsden says scores from other meets or areas of the country can't be compared, it bothers him to see that much distance between his team and its rivals.

"Well, yeah, of course," he said. "You can't help but wonder — are those teams that much better than we are?"

Utah has always been one of the country's strongest programs, though it's in a bit of a reloading season.

"Maybe they are," he said, but he's not sure.

"From what I've been able to watch online, I don't think that's true, especially when we do our thing. Now, we've made some mistakes. We've shot ourselves in the foot more than we would like to, but if we can get things together and do what we're capable of doing and do what we do in practice, I don't think there's anywhere close to that much difference. This can be a very good team; this can be a very competitive team.

"If we'll clean things up and do what we're capable of, it will be good to be on the same floor with people (in the postseason) rather than trying to compare (scores)."

The key is cleaning up in time. There are three regular-season meets left, starting with Friday's home quad meet with No. 8 Oregon State, No. 18 Penn State and No. 21 Southern Utah at 7 p.m. in the Huntsman Center.

After that, it's off to No. 4 Florida and then home to No. 35 BYU.