Utah Utes gymnastics: Red Rocks to start on best event in national championships

SALT LAKE CITY — When the University of Utah competes in the somewhat revamped 2011 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships starting April 15 in Cleveland, it will do so by starting on its best event in the evening session.

And it will end the team preliminaries night on a bye.

"I think that's good for us," said Ute coach Greg Marsden, who is the only coach in the country to have qualified a team to every national championship round for which it's been eligible.

"We'll start on bars, and that's a good event for us. It's just like starting at an away meet, so we're familiar with that, and then we go to beam, so we get calmed down a little bit, and then we only have one bye to deal with and finish up on floor and vault, which have been pretty good events for us.

"And then we'll sit there and see if it's enough."

Twelve teams, six in the afternoon session and six at night, will vie for three chances per session to advance to the Super Six team championships on April 16.

This year, the championships begin on a Friday, with the Super Six on Saturday and individual event finals on Sunday afternoon. In the past, team preliminaries were on Thursdays, Super Six on Fridays and event finals on Saturday nights.

Tiny Kent State is host to the event, and it managed to qualify from the Ann Arbor Regional on Saturday, beating out, among other teams, Stanford, which has been a major player at the championships for several years. The Cardinal placed fourth at the 2010 NCAAs.

The eighth-seeded Utes will compete in the evening preliminary session with No. 12 Kent State — the host team always competes at night — as well as No. 1 Alabama, No. 4 Oregon State, No. 5 Florida and No. 9 Nebraska.

The afternoon preliminary consists of No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 Oklahoma, No. 6 Michigan, No. 7 Georgia, No. 10 Arkansas and No. 11 Illinois.

Each year, it seems, coaches look at the draw for the sessions and think one is usually easier than the other, and they wish they were in the other one.

This year, you look at Utah's draw, and Alabama, Oregon State, Florida, Utah and Nebraska are all teams that have very strong chances.

"And then you read the next one and, 'No, don't want to be there, either,'" said Ute co-coach Megan Marsden, thinking of a UCLA-Oklahoma-Michigan-Georgia-Arkansas matchup.