#3 Ute Gymnasts at #21 Arizona Friday

Photo by: Russ Isabella

1/22/2018 10:33 AM | Gymnastics

Utes hope to stay undefeated in Tucson, where they are 12-0

This Week in Utah Gymnastics
The No. 3 ranked Utah gymnasts (4-1, 1-0 Pac-12) head to Tucson, Ariz., for a Friday, Jan. 26 meet against the No. 21 Arizona Wildcats (0-3, 0-1 Pac-12) at 6 p.m. MST in McKale Arena. The meet will be televised live on the Pac-12 Networks. Live Utah commentary and scores will be available on UtahUtes.com.

In the Rankings
Utah is No. 3 in this week's national rankings behind defending NCAA champion Oklahoma and NCAA runner-up LSU. The Utes are ranked No. 1 on floor, No. 2 on vault, No. 4 (tie) on bars and No. 14 on beam. MyKayla Skinner is ranked second in the nation in the all-around (39.633 average), vault (9.925) and bars (9.942). She is tied for 12th on beam (9.883) and 16th on floor (9.883). MaKenna Merrell-Giles is ranked No. 3 on floor (9.933 average), No. 6 in the all-around (39.508) and tied for No. 7 on vault (9.892) with Kim Tessen. Missy Reinstadtler is tied for 22nd on floor (9.875). See sidebar on page 2 for Utah's complete national rankings.

Chalk Talk
The Utes and Wildcats did not meet during last year's dual meet season. Both teams competed at the Pac-12 Championship, where Utah took first and Arizona placed seventh … Arizona will host the 2018 Pac-12 Championship on Mar. 24 … Arizona is one of two Pac-12 schools that has never beaten Utah (the other is Washington). Utah leads the series with Arizona 60-0 … MyKayla Skinner was named the Pac-12 Gymnast of the Week the first two weeks of the season. Skinner is tied for the Pac-12 record for career Gymnast of the Week awards with nine … The Utes have hit 71-of-72 routines, including 24-of-24 routines in each of the last two meets … Ute individual winners are: Skinner (11), MaKenna Merrell-Giles (4), Tiffani Lewis (2), Sydney Soloski (1) and Kim Tessen (1) … Gymnasts who have hit every routine without a fall are: Skinner (12-12), Merrell-Giles (12-12), Lewis (9-9), Kari Lee (8-8), Tessen (6-6), Macey Roberts (4-4), Sydney Soloski (3-3), Maddy Stover (3-3), Shannon McNatt (2-2) and Alexia Burch (1-1).

Ute Insider
Utah has two Arizona natives on its roster. Junior Kari Lee (Peoria) and sophomore MyKayla Skinner (Gilbert) are both from the greater Phoenix area … MyKayla Skinner's 11 wins this season brings her career total to 54, which includes 15 career all-around wins … Skinner has the team's best scores in the all-around (39.725), bars (9.975), floor (9.975), vault (9.95, tied with MaKenna Merrell-Giles) and beam (9.925) … Every member of the team other than late-arriving freshman Lauren Wong has competed at least one routine to count … The beam lineup underwent some changes last week, including the addition of freshman Alexia Burch, moving senior Maddy Stover to the front of the lineup and sophomore Skinner to the anchor position. The result was a season-high 49.200.

Series Shorts
Utah leads the series with Arizona 60-0-0 (12-0 in Tucson … For complete series results, see page 2.

Scouting Arizona
Interim Coach: John Court (1st Season)
2017 NCAA Finish: NA
National Rank: NA
Record: 0-3, 0-1 Pac-12
Notes: Interim head coach John Court is in his 20th season on the Wildcat staff, having served 19 seasons as an assistant under then head coaches Bill Ryden and Tabitha Yim. Also retained when Yim left for the head job at Stanford was assistant coach David McCreary, now in his third season … top all-arounders are Madison Cindric (39.250) and Maddi Leydin (39.200) … Wildcats scored a season-high 195.750 in a loss to UCLA (197.300) last week … other losses were to Denver, Iowa State and UCLA.