No. 1 Ranked Utah Gymnasts Begin Grueling Stretch.

Feb. 14, 2005

SALT LAKE CITY -

Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

Note: A few notes on this week's Utah-Nebraska gymnastics meet can be found below. For the complete release, including the latest top 25 and statistics--please download the accompanying PDF document.

QUICKLY

The No. 1 ranked Utah gymnasts (6-0) begin a brutal stretch this Sunday, Feb. 20 in Lincoln, Neb., where they'll face No. 6 Nebraska (2-4) starting at 2 p.m. CST ... Five days later, Utah meets No. 7 Georgia in Athens, Ga., returning home for a Mar. 4 date with No. 4 Florida, Stanford (third as last spring's NCAA Championships) and Cal ... Nebraska has had just one home meet this year (beating No. 9 Oklahoma) and its four losses were to teams in the top 10... Utah is 3-0 on the road this season... Utah has been ranked No. 1 in the nation in five of the six regular season polls to date ... Live stats and commentary for this Sunday's meet at Nebraska will be available on this site.

GOOD ALL-AROUND

Three of the top 10 all-arounders in the nation this week are Utes. Freshman Ashley Postell (39.395 average) is fourth, sophomore Rachel Tidd (39.292) is fifth and sophomore Nicolle Ford (39.215) is eighth. Utah's fourth all-arounder, Annabeth Eberle (39.154) is 18th--making Utah the only team with four all-arounders in the top 20.

UTES IN THE RANKINGS

For the complete top 25 team rankings, please see page 3 of this release. In addition to the four ranked Ute all-arounders, several Utes have high rankings on individual events. Rachel Tidd returned to the top of the nation's uneven bar rankings this week with a season average of 9.905. Ashley Postell is ranked seventh on floor (9.885 average) and Nicolle Ford is tied for eighth on beam (9.85) and 10th on bars (9.858). Utah is ranked No. 1 in the nation on the bars (49.192), No. 2 on beam (48.912) and vault (49.150) and No. 5 on floor (49.096).

LAST WEEK

Utah all-arounders placed one through four and the Utes crushed rival Brigham Young, 196.650-194.350, before the eighth largest crowd in school history (14,100). Rachel Tidd became the fourth Ute to win an all-around title this year, while scoring a season-best 39.375. Nicolle Ford (39.325), Annabeth Eberle (39.300) and Ashley Postell (39.275) placed second through fourth. Utah swept all of the individual titles, with Ford a double winner on vault and beam, Tidd capturing her fourth uneven bars title of the year and Eberle winning on floor.

UTE NOTES

Junior All-American Kristen Riffanacht aggravated the hamstring injury that has bothered her for the last three weeks and was pulled from the floor lineup last Friday against BYU. She is questionable for this week ... Gabriella Onodi, who missed one meet with an ankle injury, returned on beam vs. BYU and placed second, scoring a 9.825. Onodi is back to full strength and will be available on vault and floor this week ... beam specialist Natalie Nicoloff is expected to miss her third straight meet with an elbow injury ... If Riffanacht cannot compete on beam, Utah will be down two starters on that event ... Utah's season-opening 197.675 is still the highest score in the nation this season. When the rankings move to regional qualifying score (RQS) on Feb. 21, that score will be dropped from the calculation ... Utah is one of 19 top 25l teams that has an RQS this week (196.085)--third behind Michigan (196.220) and UCLA (196.105) ... Freshman Ashley Postell is Utah's win leader with 10. Other Ute victors: Ford (8), Tidd (8), Annabeth Eberle (7) and Gritt Hofmann (2) ... Four Utes have gone without a fall so far this season: Postell (21-21), Tidd (16-16), Nicoloff (3-3) and freshman Jessica Duke (3-3).

SERIES SHORTS

In recent years, this has evolved into one of Utah's most evenly-contested series. While Utah leads 31-4-2, its lead is just 3-2-1 in the last six years. This is the first time Utah has met Nebraska in Lincoln for a regular season competition. Utah is 1-2 all-time in Lincoln (includes 1995 regionals and 2003 NCAA Championships). Utah's regular season record vs. the Huskers is 5-0. Twice since 1997, Utah and Nebraska have tied--both times at the NCAA Championships. In 1997, they tied during qualifying competition and Nebraska received the final berth into the Super Six by winning the tie-breaker (which involved counting all 24 vs. the usual 20 scores). The two teams both made the Super Six at the 2001 NCAA Championships--then tied for fifth place.

Upcoming Events

Recent Results