Utah gymnastics: Defending Pac-12 title 'important to team'


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY — This time last year, Utah gymnastics didn’t know it would win the school’s first Pac-12 title in any sport. It didn’t know the 2015 season would be near perfect and it didn’t know it would host the conference championship to close out the season at the Huntsman Center.

The defending Pac-12 champions come into this year’s conference meet as the No. 1 seed for the third consecutive year. They’re the only team to finish in the top three in all three years — second in 2012, third in 2013 and first in 2014.

“It’s important to our team to defend the title,” said co-head coach Megan Marsden.

In fact, it’s so important that before the season started Utah made it a priority to be at its best this point in the year. The gymnasts didn’t practice hard landings in trainings, and the coaches took note of everyone’s mentality.

“It’s important when you’re competing week in and week out for many weeks to keep it in perspective. This meet is not any different than any other meet,” said Marsden.

And perhaps not worrying about the outcome is what makes this team so successful. Marsden said while winning is part of their goal, performing their absolute best is what the team really strives for. She added that for the championship, the Utes will try to take each event one at a time.

“We’ll see what that gets us,” Marsden said.


It's important when you're competing week in and week out for many weeks to keep it in perspective. This meet is not any different than any other meet.

–Megan Marsden


Unlike last year, the meet will be in Olympic order. The first and fifth seed (Arizona) will start on vault, second (UCLA) and sixth (California) on bars, third (Oregon State) and seventh (Washington) on beam and fourth (Stanford) and eighth (Arizona State) on floor.

It’s an order Utah prefers since it will be at home. Arizona State was scheduled to host the championship, but the decision to move the meet was made to accommodate a potential NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament conflict in Tempe. Marsden said having the meet in Salt Lake City provides comfort, which is the advantage for the Utes.

“We’re really excited to have it in our place. We’ve had such an incredible fan base. It’s even bigger this year. We’re excited to have our fans share hosting a championship event. The team certainly wants to give them a great show,” she said.

The Red Rocks have given their fans a phenomenal show all year. The team is undefeated at home and won the Pac-12 regular season title with a 6-0 record. Utah is UCLA’s only loss of the season.

Utah also has three returning Pac-12 individual champions. Tory Wilson is the defending all-around champion. This season she averages 39.485, ranking her ninth nationally. Her season-high (39.65) came against Michigan. Wilson also ranks on vault (eighth) and bars (24).

Georgia Dabritz was the 2014 champion on vault, bars and floor. She was also the 2012 Pac-12 bars champion. Dabritz is ranked first on bars (9.975), third on vault (9.945), sixth on floor (9.935) and 21st in the all-around (39.370). She tied her career all-around high (39.70) at Arizona and against Michigan. This season, Dabritz has three 10.0s on bars and one on vault.

Corrie Lothrop won the 2012 Pac-12 all-around title. She ranks 15th in the nation on bars (9.895) and 22nd on floor (9.90). Her season-best all-around score (39.575) also came against Michigan.

“If we do gymnastics like we have been doing gymnastics in training, we will be good,” said Marsden.

The Pac-12 championship is split into two sessions. The fifth through eighth seed will compete at 2 p.m. MDT and the first through fourth seed at 7 p.m. MDT. Pac-12 Networks will televise both sessions the event.

Related stories

Most recent Sports stories

Related topics

Sports
Holli Joyce

    ARE YOU GAME?

    From first downs to buzzer beaters, get KSL.com’s top sports stories delivered to your inbox weekly.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast