No. 3 Utah Gymnasts Compete At Minnesota Saturday

Jan. 22, 2007

SALT LAKE CITY -

Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

THE MEET

The No. 3-ranked Utah gymnastics team (2-0) goes to Minneapolis this week for a competition against Minnesota (0-2) in the Sports Pavilion on Saturday, Jan. 27 starting at 6 p.m. CST ... It is Utah's first road trip of the season after home victories against then No. 5 UCLA and Washington ... Minnesota has losses to Iowa State and Penn State ... Live scoring and commentary from the meet will be available at www.UtahUtes.com.

QUICK STICKS

Utah head coach Greg Marsden picked up career win No. 850 against Washington last week. Marsden is college gymnastics' winningest coach and its only 800-win coach ... Utah is No. 3 for the second straight week, after receiving a No. 2 ranking in the preseason coaches poll. The Utes placed second at the 2006 NCAA Championships ... Minnesota co-coaches Jim and Meg Stephenson have coaching ties to Utah. Jim assisted for the Utes from 1989-92, while Meg served as a volunteer coach.

LINEUP LOOK

Utah will utilize four all-arounders for the third straight meet (Nicolle Ford, Ashley Postell, Kristina Baskett and Jessica Duke). Three-event competitors are Nina Kim (vault, bars, beam) and Annie DiLuzio (vault, beam, floor). Freshman Daria Bijak made her first appearance of the season last week in exhibition, scoring a 9.825 on the bars and earning a starting job for this week. Bijak underwent knee surgery on Nov. 17 and is still limited in her tumbling. Freshman Sarah Shire is progressing in her training and could get a chance to compete in exhibition as early as this week.

UTE NOTES

A Ute has won or tied for every event and all-around title in the first two meets of the season. Kristina Baskett leads Utah in victories with five, followed by Nicolle Ford (4) and Ashley Postell (3) ... Ute all-arounders and their top scores this season: Baskett (39.60 vs. UCLA), Ford (39.50 vs. Washington), Postell (39.375 vs. Washington) and Jessica Duke (39.000 vs. UCLA) ... Freshman Annie DiLuzio has been the model of consistency in her first two meets. DiLuzio received back-to-back 9.85 scores on the vault and 9.825 scores on the floor. She came close to identical scores on her first two beam tries, scoring a 9.775 in the first meet and 9.75 in the second.

UTES IN THE RANKINGS

Ashley Postell, Kristina Baskett and Nicolle Ford are all ranked in the nation's top 10 this week. Postell is tied for second on floor (9.90 average), is fifth in the all-around (39.325) and ninth on bars (9.887). Baskett ranks third on vault (9.925) and is tied for sixth on floor (9.887). Ford is tied for fifth on bars (9.90).

Upcoming Events

Recent Results