Utah Gymnastics Team Prepares For The NCAA Championships

April 6, 2004

SALT LAKE CITY -

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Some brief notes for Utah's upcoming competition at the NCAA Championships follows. For the complete release, please choose the pdf document.

QUICKLY

The 10-time national champion Utah gymnasts are headed to a record 29th straight national championship (23rd NCAA Championship) after winning the NCAA South Central Region Championship on April 3 in Tucson, Ariz. ... The 2004 NCAA Championships will be held in Los Angeles, April 15-17 ... Utah posted the highest score of the six regional championships-a 197.625 ... The 12 teams that have qualified for the 2004 NCAA Championships are Utah, UCLA, Georgia, Louisiana State, Oklahoma, Stanford, Florida, Alabama, Nebraska, Michigan, Arizona State and Iowa ... The Utes will open NCAA competition on Thursday, April 15 at 7:00 p.m. (PDT) in Pauley Pavilion on the UCLA campus.

SUPER SESSION

The evening session of the NCAA qualifying night on April 15 will feature teams that have won 17 of the 22 NCAA Championships to date. Teams in the session include nine-time NCAA champion Utah (10 total national titles) and four-time champions Alabama and UCLA, along with Arizona State (a four-time NCAA runner-up), LSU and Michigan. The afternoon session has just one NCAA champ-Georgia, which has won five titles. Joining the Bulldogs are Stanford, Oklahoma, Florida, Nebraska and Iowa. The NCAA used a blind draw to make the pairings. The top three teams from each session will move on to the Super Six team championship on April 16.

WORTH RECORDING

Utah head coach Greg Marsden needs two victories to become college gymnastics' first 800-win coach. Marsden is 798-131-5 in 29 seasons at Utah ... Utah went 13-1 in the regular season with its only loss coming to Michigan on Feb. 14 ... The 2004 Utes own five of the 10 best team scores in school history: 198.600 vs. BYU on Mar. 19 (first), 198.050 vs. Utah State on Feb. 27 (third), 197.950 at Washington on Mar. 5 (fourth), 197.675 vs. OSU on Mar. 12 (ninth) and 197.650 vs. Iowa on Feb. 6 (10th) ... Utah was ranked in the top four for 10 of 12 weeks this season, including two weeks at No. 1 after beating top-ranked UCLA in Los Angeles ... Utah placed second in the 2004 national attendance standings. The Utes, who drew the largest crowd to watch a gymnastics meet in the nation this year on Mar. 19 (13,325 vs. BYU), averaged 10,125 fans to their six home meets to finish just behind Alabama (10,274).

LIVE SCORING ON THE 'NET

Live scoring from the NCAA Championships will be available on the Internet. To follow the meet in progress, log on to http://uclabruins.ocsn.com/sports/w-gym/spec-rel/2004-ncaa-champ-central.html.

UTE NOTES

Utah has two North Central Region Gymnasts of the Year on its roster: Annabeth Eberle was voted the top region gymnast by the region coaches this year and Melissa Vituj took the top honor in 2003 ... Three Utes enter the NCAA Championships without a fall in competition this season: Kristen Riffanacht (29-29), Natalie Nicoloff (13-13) and Gritt Hofmann (9-9) ... Eberle and Vituj have 20 and 19 victories, respectively ... Four Utes have received perfect 10.0s with Eberle and Vituj leading the way with three 10.0s apiece. All three by Eberle came on vault-two on the road. Vituj earned two 10.0s on floor and one on beam. Veronique Leclerc scored a 10.0 on floor and Rachel Tidd had a 10.0 on vault ... Vituj is the only Ute to go all-around in every meet this season ... Likely all-arounders at regionals are Vituj (39.875 best), Eberle (39.775) and Tidd (39.675) or Nicolle Ford (39.625).

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