Utah Hosts Pac-12 Gymnastics Championships Saturday

March 16, 2015

SALT LAKE CITY -

UTES HOST PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIP SATURDAY

The No. 4 Utes (11-1, 6-0 Pac-12) will host the 2015 Pac-12 Gymnastics Championship on Saturday, Mar. 21 in the Huntsman Center. The meet consists of sessions at 2 p.m. (seeds 5-8) and 7 p.m. (seeds 1-4). Competing in the early session are Arizona, California, Washington and Arizona State. Teams in the evening session are Utah, UCLA, Oregon State and Stanford. Tickets are available at UtahUtes.com and 801-581-UTIX.

PUBLIC PREVIEW

The public is invited to watch the free practice sessions on Friday, Mar. 20 in the Huntsman Center. Arizona, California, Washington and Arizona State will train from 1:00-2:40 p.m. on Friday, followed by Utah, UCLA, Oregon State and Stanford from 3:45-5:25 p.m.

MEET IN A MINUTE

Teams were seeded into the Pac-12 Championship according to their regional qualifying score (RQS), which also determines the national rankings. Seven of the eight Pac-12 teams enter the conference championship ranked in the nation's top 25. The top four seeds are No. 4 Utah (197.605 RQS), No. 7 UCLA (197.130), No. 12 Oregon State (196.550) and No. 13 Stanford (196.530). Competing in the afternoon session are No. 17 Arizona (196.290), No. 20 California (196.190), No. 22 Washington (195.960) and Arizona State (194.425) ... Teams and individual finishes at the Pac-12 Championship are determined by score, regardless of session ... Arizona State was initially scheduled to host the Pac-12 Championships. A decision to move the meet to Utah was made to accommodate a potential NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament conflict in Tempe.

PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES

Utah is the defending champion, winning the school's first Pac-12 title in any sport last year at the 2014 Pac-12 Championship in Berkeley, Calif. ... Three different champions have been crowned in the first three years of the Pac-12 Championship: UCLA (2012), Oregon State (2013) and Utah (2014) ... Utah is the No. 1 seed for the third-straight year (Utah was the second seed in 2012) and is the only team to finish in the top three all three years. The Utes placed second in 2012, third in 2013 and first in 2014 ... Utah has three returning Pac-12 individual champions: Tory Wilson is the defending all-around champion, while Georgia Dabritz was the 2014 champion on vault, bars and floor. Dabritz was also the 2012 Pac-12 uneven bar champion and Corrie Lothrop won the 2012 Pac-12 all-around title ... Utah's 197.925 last year is the best score in the three-year history of the Pac-12 Championship.

PAC FACTS

Utah won the Pac-12 regular season title with a 6-0 league record, handing second-place UCLA its only loss of the season. The final conference and overall standings are on page 2 of this release ... The Utes won both the regular season and tournament titles in 2014 ... Utah is 320-56-4 (85%) all-time against Pac-12 teams. Utah's series record against each team follows: Arizona (56-0-0), Arizona State (69-16-1), California (13-0-0), Oregon State (63-9-0), Stanford (23-6-0), UCLA (48-25-1) and Washington (48-0-2) ... 2015 capsules on the eight teams can be found in the sidebars on page 5 ... Three Pac-12 teams qualified into the NCAA Championships last year, with Utah placing seventh, UCLA eighth and Stanford ninth.

QUICK STICKS

Utah is ranked No. 1 in the nation this week on both vault and bars. Georgia Dabritz is ranked No. 1 in the nation on the uneven bars for the fourth-straight week with a near-perfect 9.975 regional qualifying score. The Utes have four vaulters ranked in the top 25, led by No. 3 Dabritz ... Tory Wilson is the Pac-12's top-ranked all-arounder and is No. 9 in the nation with a 39.485 RQS (see page 3 for complete Utah rankings) ... Utah won its first 11 meets before losing at Georgia, 197.450-197.275 in the regular season finale on Mar. 14 ... Utah broke its own NCAA gymnastics attendance record this season, averaging 14,950 to its home meets and winning its fifth all-women's sports attendance title. See Nation's Attendance Leader for more. Utah set the Pac-12 Championship attendance record in 2012 with a two-session total of 19,374 (8,495 for the afternoon session and 10,879 at night).

CHALK TALK

Utah captured the uneven bar title in every regular season meet this year, with Georgia Dabritz (the nation's top-ranked bar worker) capturing eight victories and Corrie Lothrop tying for first against UCLA ... Utah is 7-0 at home and 4-1 on the road ... Utah has had four all-arounders score above a 39.500 this season: Dabritz (39.70 twice), Tory Wilson (39.65) and Lothrop (39.575). Baely Rowe has a 39.35 best ... Becky Tutka holds the school record for consecutive routines without a fall (77). She is 77-of-77 in her career ... Utah counted a fall in just one regular season meet (on beam at Oregon State).

UTE INSIDER

After sitting out of vault and floor last week due to a sore foot, sophomore Baely Rowe is projected to return to the all-around lineup for the Pac-12 Championships. If she can't go on vault, she will be replaced by freshman Tiffani Lewis ... Utah won all four individual events and the all-around in last week's loss at Georgia. Earning her first career win was freshman Maddy Stover, who tied for first on beam with Rowe ... Utah's best individual event scores this year include a 10.0 on vault (Tory Wilson and Georgia Dabritz) and bars (Dabritz three times). The Utes have a 9.975 best on beam (Kari Lee) and floor (Dabritz) ... Ute winners this season: Dabritz (24), Tory Wilson (9), Lee (5), Baely Rowe (4), Kailah Delaney (3), Corrie Lothrop (2), Stover (1), Becky Tutka (1) ... The Utes are 233-240 in hit routines (routines without a fall). Gymnasts who have hit every routine are Delaney (13-13), Lewis (12-12), Kassandra Lopez (10-10), Stover (10-10), Breanna Hughes (9-9), Tutka (7-7) and Samantha Partyka (5-5).

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