This Week in Utah Gymnastics
A showdown between four Pac-12 gymnastics powers is on Utah's slate this week at the Elevate the Stage meet in Reno, Nev., Sunday, Jan. 14 at 2 p.m. PT/3 p.m. MT. The podium meet features No. 2 Utah (1-0, 0-0 Pac-12), No. 4 UCLA (1-0, 0-0 Pac-12), Washington (0-0) and Stanford (0-0) in the Reno Events Center. The meet is being hosted by the Knight Eady Sports Group and a live video stream will be available at http://bit.ly/2lHRYwB with a paid subscription to FloGymnastics. Live Utah commentary and scores can be found on UtahUtes.com.
 
On Podium
For the first time ever, the Utes will have an opportunity to compete on podium in the regular season at the Elevate the Stage meet this Sunday. Utah's only previous experience competing on podium has been at the NCAA Championships. Meet sponsor the Knight Eady Sports Group will also host a club meet for Levels 1-10 the same weekend.
 
Connections
Sunday's meet will be a homecoming for Ute freshman Alexia Burch, who hails from nearby Sparks, Nev., which is just four miles from Reno. Burch missed last week's meet against BYU after rolling her ankle in practice, but is back training. Senior Tiffani Lewis (Las Vegas) is Utah's other Nevada native. Lewis, a three-event performer, is an All-American and a two-time Pac-12 champion (vault and floor).
 
Meet in a Minute
Three NCAA Champions will be competing on stage at Reno: Utah's MyKayla Skinner was the 2017 NCAA floor champion as a freshman—when she finished second in the all-around—and UCLA's Kyla Ross won the NCAA bars and beam titles … Utah, UCLA and Washington all qualified for the NCAA Championships last year. Both Utah (5th) and UCLA (4th) advanced to the Super Six while Washington finished eighth. Utah and UCLA have combined to win five of the six Pac-12 Championships to date, with Utah winning in 2014, 2015 and 2017 and UCLA capturing the title in 2012 and 2016. See Series Shorts for more.
 
In the Rankings
The Utes are No. 2 in this week's National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches (NACGC) rankings, which are currently based on high score. Utah was one of two teams to score a 197 in the opening week, with its 197.000 trailing only LSU's 197.150. The Utes are ranked No. 1 on vault, No. 2 on bars and No. 3 on floor, while tying for No. 9 on beam … MyKayla Skinner is ranked in the top 10 in the country on beam (No. 4/tie), all-around (No. 5/tie), bars (No. 7/tie) and vault (No. 8/tie). Tied for No. 2 in the nation are Tiffani Lewis and Kim Tessen on vault and MaKenna Merrell-Giles on floor. Merrell-Giles is also tied for fifth in the all-around with Skinner. Lewis and Missy Reinstadtler are tied for sixth on floor. See sidebar on page 2 for Utah's complete national rankings.
 
Ute Insider
Freshman Lauren Wong will begin training with the Utes this Thursday. Wong graduated at the semester from Salt Lake's Skyline HS and enrolled in spring semester classes at the U. She is considered a strong contender for the bar lineup as a freshman … Kari Lee was held out of vault and floor in the first meet for precautionary reasons, which allowed freshman Sydney Soloski her first collegiate start. Soloski, who competed in exhibition on bars and beam, scored a 9.85 on floor in her NCAA debut.
 
Quick Sticks
The Utah gymnastics team has never competed in the state of Nevada. The Utes will travel to Reno on Friday and hold a practice on podium in the Reno Events Center on Saturday ... A Huntsman Center crowd of 14,805 saw Utah defeat BYU 197.000-194.275 last Friday. Utah's 197.000 was the third-best season-opening score in school history … The Utes hit 23-of-24 routines in their first meet … Gymnasts who hit every routine were MyKayla Skinner (4-4), MaKenna Merrell-Giles (4-4), Tiffani Lewis (3-3), Kari Lee (2-2), Macey Roberts (2-2, Kim Tessen (2-2), Shannon McNatt (1-1), Sydney Soloski (1-1) and Maddy Stover (1-1).