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SALT LAKE CITY — If you haven't already heard, fourth-ranked Utah gymnastics is coming off its best meet of the season. The Red Rocks are looking to carry the momentum to Gill Coliseum, where they will compete Friday against 12th-ranked Oregon State.
Utah’s 198.05-195.9 win over Stanford last week tied for the fourth-best score in school history and is its best since a 198.125 victory against Florida March 16, 2013.
“I feel like we have been on track for this to happen, especially if the girls as a group could stick more landings,” co-head coach Megan Marsden said.
And stick their landings they did, especially on vault and bars. Nine gymnasts scored season bests, including seven career bests.
Utah (9-0, 5-0 Pac-12) is the No. 1 vault team in the nation, averaging 49.48 with three gymnasts in the top 10 — Georgia Dabritz (1), Tory Wilson (10T) and Kailah Delaney (10T). Delaney has won on vault the last two weeks, scoring a 9.95 at Washington and a career best 9.975 against Stanford.
Freshman Samantha Partyka earned 9.925 on her second vault of the season. Partyka made the vault lineup Feb. 14 at Washington and scored a 9.85. She was the last Ute to count, but Marsden insists that’s not why she made the lineup. She said the freshman warmed up really well on the event and the coaches felt confident she’d stick her landing if she competed.
I feel like we have been on track for this to happen, especially if the girls as a group could stick more landings.
–Megan Marsden
“That’s the name of the game on vault these days, having several of your girls stick. She did it the right way. It wasn’t ‘Oh this is a meet that we can let her go because she hasn’t had a chance to.’ It was that Greg (Marsden) went, ‘I’m using her. Look at these vaults,’” added Megan Marsden.
Senior co-captain Dabritz ranks first in the nation on both vault and bars. On the floor she’s tied fifth. Monday she received the Pac-12 Special Performance of the Week after scoring 10.0 on bars against Stanford. This is the fourth week this year the conference has honored her with a weekly award.
Dabritz’s perfect score on bars, her second of the season, was her 70th career win. She has won six of seven bar competitions this year. She placed second with a 9.875 against UCLA when fellow senior co-captain Corrie Lothrop’s routine (9.9) won the event.
Dabritz ranked first in the nation in the all-around for four consecutive weeks. She didn’t compete in the all-around against Stanford after falling off the beam in Seattle. Marsden said placing the senior in a beam exhibition instead allowed the gymnast to regain confidence in front of a crowd.
As for this coming week, it’s unsure if Dabritz will be in the all-around lineup.
“We’ll watch training to make a decision. She did a good job in exhibition, but Kailah did a good job in the lineup. The great news is this team gives us options on balance beam. We’ve got some depth and girls that are fighting for spots,” said Marsden.
Dabritz currently doesn’t qualify for a regional qualifying score (RQS) because she doesn’t have enough road scores. The first seven meets of the season use total season average to accumulate national rankings. This week marks the switch from total season average to RQS. The RQS is obtained by taking the six best scores, three of which must come from the road, dropping the high score and averaging the remaining five.
On the tentative lineup, Wilson and Baely Rowe are to compete in the all-around this week against Oregon State. Wilson is the Pac-12’s top-ranked all-arounder and sixth nationally.
“I don’t know what we’ll do with that (Dabritz) at this point, but Greg likes to continue to jockey things around through the regular season when we really have to make a decision in the postseason,” Marsden said.
Oregon State (7-3, 4-3 Pac-12) is not using an all-arounder. Sophomore Madeline Gardiner and senior Chelsea Tang began the season as all-arounders for the Beavers, but head coach Tanya Chaplin hasn’t put the gymnasts on the vault and bars lineups respectively in the past two weeks.
The Utes are 62-9 all-time against the Beavers and lead the series 16-8 in Corvallis. Utah’s last trip to Gill Coliseum was for the 2013 Pac-12 Championships. Oregon State won and the Red Rocks placed third. Utah also lost its most recent dual competition in Corvallis in 2011.
Marsden didn’t have any new injuries to report. She said the team has soreness from harder landings but that’s normal. Junior Haley Lange continues to wear a boot for a stress fracture that is slowly healing.
Pac-12 Networks will air the meet Friday at 8 p.m. MST.
