Utah Utes gymnastics: Who will step up?

SALT LAKE CITY — For Utah's No. 2-ranked gymnastics team, which opens its 2010 season this evening at 5 p.m. MST at fifth-ranked UCLA's Pauley Pavilion, it's a question of who?

Who will step out of their comfort zones and into the roles vacated by graduating seniors Nina Kim and Kristina Baskett?

Those two not only provided the Utes with many of their top scores the last several seasons, but also put together one of the team's strongest, most vocal leadership tandems in many years.

"The last two years we've had Ashley (Postell) and then Kris and Nina. They've been such dominant individual performers I think the rest of the team has kind of learned to depend on them at the end of the lineup," said Greg Marsden, entering his 35th season as the Utes' coach, now with his wife, Megan, holding the title of co-coach.

"So our biggest challenge this year is who is our go-to person at the end of each lineup and getting them there and getting them comfortable with that role."

The suspected candidates, he said, are seniors (Daria Bijak, Jamie Deetscreek, Annie DiLuzio, Beth Rizzo) and juniors (Kyndal Robarts, Gael Mackie, Jaq Johnson), "but they've never been in that position before."

It's just part of what Greg Marsden calls the "circle of life" that is collegiate sports, where the inevitable moving on of star athletes means opportunity for others.

"I know they're looking forward to it, they've worked hard to do it, and we've just got to get out on the floor now and see where we are right now and see what we need to do to go forward," he said.

For tonight, the Utes have penciled in Bijak to complete the bars lineup, Robarts sixth on vault and beam and DiLuzio on floor.

Bijak comes the closest to the star appeal of Postell, Baskett and Kim. She competed in the 2008 Olympics and 2005 and 2003 World Championships for her native Germany and was eighth in the world all-around in '05.

But those are more individual competitions. It's a different responsibility to anchor a team every week. And Bijak does not like to compete late in the lineups on vault and floor because she cools down. Megan Marsden said Bijak is more agreeable now but still doesn't want to go any later than third on vault. Tonight she'll be first.

Bijak is happy with her surroundings.