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
Friday, January 18
Salt Lake City
7:00 PM MT
University of Utah
197.150
vs
196
Arizona
Vituj, Kulikowski Spark Ute Gymnastics Win Over No. 7 Arizona
1/18/2002 12:00 AM | Gymnastics
Jan. 18, 2002
SALT LAKE CITY -
Utah's 197.150-196.100 win over No. 7 ranked Arizona left the 7,637 fans in attendance wondering how high the Utes can go when they hit all four events. It marked the earliest time in a season that at Ute team had cracked 197.00 and it happened despite two falls on vault. It also prevented perhaps the best Arizona team Utah has ever faced from snapping its national record home court win streak, now at 166.
After Utah's second and third vaulters sat their landings, things did not look good for the streak. A pair of 9.90 vaults by Melissa Vituj and Veronique Leclerc to end the set only got Utah to 48.50. If Arizona hadn't had a few kinks of its own to work out on the bars, the first event score could have been much worse than 48.55-48.50.
As it turned out Vituj and Leclerc were just warming up. And once the Utes got their three-time NCAA champion Theresa Kulikowski into the act on their second event, things positively sizzled. Vituj, in her first bar routine to count in college, one-upped a powerful 9.80 routine by lead-off Kim Allan with a 9.85 score. Shannon Bowles swung to a 9.90, followed by a 9.925 by both Leclerc and Deidra Graham. The five big scores set the stage for Kulikowski, who a week before suffered a scary fall on bars and bruised her knee.
There was nothing scary about Kulio's routine this night. Back to the flawless form that had already earned her four 10.0 scores on bars in her first two years, Kulio received a 10.0 score from both the Utah and Arizona judge.
Kulikowski's 10.0 seemed to fire Utah up further, which was fortunate since Arizona wasn't going away. A 49.425 beam set by Utah offset Arizona's 49.10 floor score and gave the Utes some breathing room going into their last event.
By now, falls weren't even in the picture for the Utes. On bars and beam, a mere bobble was rare--a trait that continued on to floor. All eyes turned to the all-around race that had shaped up between Vituj, Leclerc and Arizona's Randi Liljenquist, who within .05 of each other after three events. Oh, that and the return of 1999 NCAA floor exercise runner-up Kulikowski to the floor for the first time since she tore her ACL two years ago.
Leclerc gave it her best shot, scoring a 9.875 as Utah's lead-off performer and finishing with a 39.525 in her second career all-around. It wasn't quite enough to stay up with Liljenquist, whose 9.925 on beam pushed her score to a 39.55, or Vituj, whose 9.925 on floor led her to a victory in her first ever career all-around (39.575). Vituj had to share the limelight with Kulikowski, whose 9.95 on floor tied her for first with Bowles.
Graham, Utah's senior two-time All-America all-arounder, placed fourth with a solid 39.325, and Bowles, another All-America all-arounder overcame a fall on vault to score a 39.00.
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