SAN FRANCISCO—The Pac-12 Conference released the 2018 gymnastics schedule today and all six Utah home meets are on a Friday or Saturday, including the NCAA Regional on Saturday, Apr. 7. The Utes will make nine live television appearances—eight on Pac-12 Networks and one on ESPNU. In addition, all of Utah's home meets and postseason competitions will be broadcast live on ESPN 700, Utah's flagship radio station.
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The Utes will face five teams that qualified for the 2017 NCAA Championships—Oregon State, Washington, UCLA, Michigan and Georgia—and the OSU, UW and Georgia meets are in the Huntsman Center.
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For the first time ever in the regular season, the Utes will have an opportunity to compete on podium at the Elevate the Stage quad meet featuring Pac-12 heavyweights Utah, UCLA, Stanford and Washington. The meet, hosted by the Knight Eady Sports Group, will be held in Reno, Nev., on Sunday, Jan. 14 at the Reno Events Center.
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"This schedule has everything we want in that it offers quality opponents, weekend meets, television exposure and the opportunity to compete on podium," said Utah co-head coach
Tom Farden. "The Friday and Saturday home meets will help us maintain our electric atmosphere with capacity crowds in the Huntsman Center—which also makes for a great television viewing experience. The quad meet in Reno will allow our gymnasts to experience competing on podium prior to the postseason—something other top teams have done in recent years that has proved advantageous for them at the NCAA Championships."
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Utah fans will get their first look at the 2018 Utes at the 14th-annual Red Rocks Preview intra-squad meet on Dec. 15. The Utes will open the season at home against BYU on Jan. 5. They also will host dual meets against Oregon State (Jan. 19), Washington (Feb. 3), Arizona State (Feb. 9) and Georgia (Mar. 16). The Washington meet is a Saturday matinee starting at 1:30 p.m., while the Georgia meet will be televised live on ESPNU at 7:30 p.m.
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Utah lost just one senior (
Baely Rowe) from last year's Pac-12 champion, Super Six finalist team. The 11 returners include 2017 NCAA floor exercise champion and all-around runner-up
MyKayla Skinner. Skinner, also the Pac-12 all-around, vault and floor champion as a freshman last year, is one of six All-Americans on the 2018 Utah roster, along with
Kari Lee,
Tiffani Lewis,
MaKenna Merrell-Giles,
Maddy Stover and
Sabrina Schwab. New to the team are freshmen
Alexia Burch and
Sydney Soloski.
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Season tickets are on sale now at UtahTickets.com or by calling 801-581-UTIX. The Utes averaged an NCAA record 15,244 fans to their home meets last season and won their seventh all-sports women's attendance title and their 33rd gymnastics attendance crown.
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2018 UTAH GYMNASTICS SCHEDULE
| Date |
Opponent |
Location |
Time |
Listen |
Watch |
| Fri., Dec. 15 |
Red Rocks Preview |
Salt Lake City |
7:00 p.m. MT |
|
|
| Fri., Jan. 5 |
Brigham Young |
Salt Lake City |
7:00 p.m. MT |
ESPN 700 |
P12N |
| Sun., Jan. 14 |
vs. UCLA, Stanford, Washington |
Reno, Nev. |
2:00 p.m. PT |
|
Live Scores |
| Fri., Jan. 19 |
Oregon State* |
Salt Lake City |
7:00 p.m. MT |
ESPN 700 |
P12N |
| Fri., Jan. 26 |
at Arizona* |
Tucson, Ariz. |
6:00 p.m. MT |
|
P12N |
| Sat., Feb. 3 |
Washington* |
Salt Lake City |
1:30 p.m. MT |
ESPN 700 |
P12N |
| Fri., Feb. 9 |
Arizona State* |
Salt Lake City |
7:00 p.m. MT |
ESPN 700 |
P12N |
| Sun., Feb. 18 |
at UCLA* |
Los Angeles |
5:00 p.m. PT |
|
P12N |
| Sun., Feb. 25 |
at California* |
Berkeley, Calif. |
11:00 a.m. PT |
|
P12N |
| Sat., Mar. 10 |
at Michigan |
Ann Arbor, Mich. |
2:00 p.m. ET |
|
TBA |
| Fri., Mar. 16 |
Georgia |
Salt Lake City |
7:30 p.m. MT |
ESPN 700 |
ESPNU |
| Sat., Mar. 24 |
Pac-12 Championship |
Tucson, Ariz. |
1:00/6:00 PT |
ESPN 700 |
P12N |
| Sat., Apr. 7 |
NCAA Regionals |
Salt Lake City |
4:00 p.m. MT |
ESPN 700 |
Live Stream |
| Fri., Apr. 20 |
NCAA Championships-Semifinals |
St. Louis, Mo. |
12:00/8:00 CT |
|
ESPN2/ESPN |
| Sat., Apr. 21 |
NCAA Championships-Super Six |
St. Louis, Mo. |
7:00 p.m. CT |
|
ESPNU |
 *Pac-12 Conference Meet; Times are Local to Site
