Utah gymnastics: Utes battling nagging injuries, just trying to play it smart

SALT LAKE CITY — With two meets left in the regular season, the big thing right now for Utah's sixth-ranked gymnastics team is to be smart.

"We're at that point of the year where everyone's winding up with little nagging stuff," said Ute coach Greg Marsden.

The Utes dealt fairly successfully with two injuries last week but picked up two more that they at least have to manage now.

When senior Jacq Johnson fell on beam last Friday against No. 1 Florida, she bruised a thigh and sprained an ankle. Marsden doesn't think that will keep her out Saturday night when Utah performs at No. 5-ranked Oregon State at 8 p.m. MST, but that and freshman Nansy Damianova's sore ankle will both require close attention.

It's not known yet if freshman Victoria Shanley's sore back will allow her to return to the vault lineup, as vaulting is tough on an athlete's back, but she's cleared this week to practice.

Freshman all-arounder Corrie Lothrop, the team leader with a 39.50 career high two weeks ago, is also cleared and planned to work all events in practice. She hopes to be able to do them all at Oregon State. X-rays on an ankle showed she has some bone spurs.

"We were thinking just one of them got into my joint or something," she said.

The pain comes and goes, and she's felt fine the last week or so after having to sit out the meet at Utah State and all but beam last Friday against Florida.

"When I did (get the injury) last week, I kind of felt it during a move (but) mainly afterwards," she said. "Except on floor. That one hurt."

But she said she doesn't worry about it happening again.

All the little injuries mean, said Marsden, "We've just got to be smart that we do enough to be ready but not enough to further aggravate those issues, so the big thing now is just be smart in our approach and make sure we're healthy for the postseason."

RIGHT THERE: Neither Florida nor Utah had a perfect meet last Friday, but even though Marsden said, "I have to admit — all things being equal — I think they're a better team," he also has the feeling after seeing the NCAA's No. 1 team, that, "We're a good enough team that if we do our thing, we can keep the pressure on other teams and make them be at their best to beat us.

"Sometimes that's been enough this year, and a couple times it hasn't."