Utah Utes gymnastics: Red Rocks win big showdown

SALT LAKE CITY — The top two collegiate programs in women's gymnastics may not be where they want to be yet, as both try to cope with the losses of big-time senior classes from last year.

But Utah and Georgia can still put on a rip-roaring meet that had to satisfy an NCAA-record crowd at the Huntsman Center on Friday night.

"How could it not be a great event?" asked Utah coach Greg Marsden after his club had nudged the Georgia Gym Dogs 196.55-196.50, the season's top scores for both teams.

"It was a great event to compete in, and it had to be a fun event to watch.

"That's exactly what I needed," said Marsden, who spent four days this week in a sick bed before finally making it to Thursday's practice.

"Any time you beat Georgia, it's a big deal. They've had our number for a long time.

"It was close, and I was ready for it to go either way. If it had turned out the other way, I still felt good about the performance of the team tonight. Far from perfect. We have a lot of things we still have to get better at, but it was another step forward. If we can do that consistently for 10 more weeks, at the end of the season, we're going to be a pretty good team."

"We've had a rivalry with them, but every win is a win," said junior Kyndal Robarts, who helped get the Utes the lead in vault as she went long and stuck her Omelianchik vault (half-turn Yurchenko on with piked salto off) for a career-best 9.95. "It feels good to win any meet, but this one was nice also."

It was a back-and-forth, nail-biter of a night, Utah leading after one event, trailing after two, retaking the lead after the third as Georgia had three out-of-bounds mistakes on its floor exercise and then barely holding on as George uncorked its best balance beam set of the season (49.325).

"We didn't lay down and die. Our team grew up a little bit tonight," said first-year Georgia head coach Jay Clark, who is taking over for the retired legend, Suzanne Yoculan. "Regardless of the final score — of course, you always want to win — but we feel good about the progress we made. It felt more like a Georgia team tonight."

Utah's two final floor-workers made just enough difference.