Completed Event: Gymnastics versus NCAA Championship Final on April 19, 2025 , , 4th of 4 (197.2375)
Final Score
Gymnastics
4th of 4 (197.2375)
vs NCAA Championship Final
Sunday, January 21
Los Angeles
2:00 PM PT
University of Utah
195
at
197.500
UCLA
Ute Gymnasts Fall On Beam, Fall To UCLA
1/21/2001 12:00 AM | Gymnastics
Jan. 21, 2001
LOS ANGELES -
LOS ANGELES-The University of Utah gymnastics team hung with the UCLA "Olympic Team" for three rotations, but the wheels fell off on the balance beam and UCLA pulled away for a 197.500-195.700 win. The meet, which matched the top two teams from last year's NCAA Championships, was a half-point game until round four. Then the Utes, who hadn't had a fall all night and were ranked No. 1 in the nation going into the meet, made three major mistakes and were forced to count a fall and a break.
Utah took an early lead over a UCLA team that features 2000 U.S. Olympians Jamie Dantzscher and Kristen Maloney and Canadian Olympian Yvonne Tourek in its star studded cast. After one rotation, the Utes were up 49.250-49.200 It was a short lived lead, as Utah's next event, vault, is its weakest right now. Four Utes are competing vaults with a 9.80 start value and just one has a 10.0 valued vault, meaning Utah couldn't keep pace with UCLA's 49.55 bar set. A huge 9.90 vault by freshman Veronique Leclerc, however, tied her for first with UCLA's Onnie Willis and Utah's 48.70 team score was its best this year on the vault. After two events, UCLA led 98.75-97.95.
The Utes stayed sharp on the floor exercise, tallying a solid 49.350 score that included a career-tying 9.90 from Theresa Wolf and a 9.875 from Deidra Graham and Melissa Vituj. The score moved Utah within reach of UCLA, whose 49.10 beam lowered their lead to six-tenths of a point (147.900-147.300) heading into the final rotation.
But disaster struck immediately for Utah on the balance beam when Kim Allan opened the set with a major break and received a 9.55. Her score would have to count after Theresa Wolf and Theresa Kulikowski both fell off the apparatus. For Kulikowski, the 1999 NCAA balance beam champion, it marked her first fall ever on beam in collegiate competition. The falls didn't spook Utah's final competitor, Shannon Bowles, who responded with a meet-tying 9.925 routine.
"Other than the balance beam, I was really pleased," said Ute Head Coach Greg Marsden, who lost for the first time in Pauley Pavilion in regular season competition, where Utah now owns a 7-1 series advantage. "Except for beam, we accomplished what we came to do. UCLA is a great team and has, without question, the most talent ever assembled on a college gymnastics team. But we are going to be a much better team in two months than we were tonight because we're giving up five-six tenths of a point on our vault start values right now."
Graham placed third in the all-around with a 39.300, behind defending NCAA uneven bars champion Mohini Bhardwaj (39.725) and Maloney (39.475). Utah is home just briefly before leaving on Thursday for Tucson, where it will meet Arizona the next night.
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