Utah Gymnasts Open Season Against Defending NCAA Champ UCLA

Jan. 3, 2005

SALT LAKE CITY -

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QUICKLY

Utah and UCLA--winners of a combined 15 national women's gymnastics championships--will open their respective seasons against each other in the RC Willey Invitational, Friday, Jan. 7 starting at 7 p.m. MST in the Huntsman Center ... Two-for-one coupons to the meet are available at all RC Willey locations and two free tickets will be provided with any purchase. Tickets may also be obtained by phone (581-UTIX), at the Ute box office (Rice-Eccles Stadium Monday-Thursday; Huntsman Center Friday) or on the Internet (www.UtahUtes.com) ... This marks the third straight season that the two powerhouses have met in the season opener. They split the openers in 2003 and `04 with a road win for each team. They are also slated to kick off their 2006 and 2007 seasons against each other ... Utah and UCLA are two of just four programs (Alabama and Georgia are the others) to have won an NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championship. Utah has won 10 national titles (nine NCAA)--most recently in 1995. UCLA owns five NCAA Championships, including two straight and four of the last five. Its first NCAA title was in 1997.

WORLD CLASS OPENER

The Utah-UCLA meet will feature a world-class lineup of gymnasts. Their combined rosters contain three Olympians, eight World Championship competitors and 14 senior national team members. The Olympians are UCLA's Kristen Maloney (United States 2000), Kate Richardson (Canada 2000 and 2004) and Tasha Schwikert (United States 2000). World Championships competitors (four from each team) include 2002 World Balance Beam Champion Ashley Postell of Utah. Each team features seven former national team members.

EARLY PREDICTIONS

UCLA is the preseason No. 1 choice in the coaches poll for the fifth straight year while Utah was tabbed at No. 5. The Bruins received 15 of 26 first-place votes. Utah had the fourth-most first-place votes with two and was just one point out of a tie for fourth with Alabama in total votes. See Preseason Rankings for the complete coaches poll.

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