The Utes, themselves, had absolutely no clue about what they'd just done. They were in their dressing room with a bye on the final rotation of Friday's NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships at Georgia Coliseum.
They were laughing and changing clothes and thinking they'd done a good job - going through the entire meet Friday without counting a miss after having had several falls in Thursday's preliminary round.They didn't know they had scored 196.65, the highest a Utah team has ever scored in an NCAA championships.
They certainly didn't know they'd won.
Sports information director Liz Abel walked into the dressing room, dispatched by CBS-TV to bring the winning team for a quick interview. When she told the Utes they'd won, they stared blankly at her. It was the furthest thing from their minds.
"We had the time of our lives," said Ute senior Suzanne Metz, who finished the season without ever missing a routine - going 56-for-56.
This Utah team of eight gymnasts, barely over the minimum number needed to compete, held together through a whole season of wondering. Sandy Woolsey competed despite painful shin splints that had her limping after Thursday's competition with the big one, the Super Six, yet to go. Kelley Delaney, hobbled by a hip injury suffered in her final workout in Utah on Monday, competed on floor for a sore Woolsey Friday night and started the Utes off with 9.7.
Coach Greg Marsden said after the meet that in January he had tried to talk senior Aimee Trepanier into retiring because her bulging spinal disc was causing her so much pain. She sat out the whole preseason and began training in pain in January. Doctors said her career might be over, but she persevered, giving the Utes a little depth and eventually going all-around her last four meets. Friday she scored 39.30 with a 9.9 on floor.
"Thank goodness she's wiser than I am," said Marsden.
"I was just happy to become a part of our team again," Trepanier said.
Woolsey, who fell on her best event, bars, on Thursday, came back with 9.95 in Utah's last routine of the team competition.
"I don't think my hands have stopped shaking yet," she said. "Being the last performer on the team really helped. My teammates were able to get me going," she said of the routine that - without her knowledge - guaranteed Utah's win.
Other big contributions included Megan Caudle's 9.9 vault, solid (9.8, 9.775, 9.8) scores from Alysa Frenz and a 39.25 all-around total from freshman Traci Sommer, who fell out of bounds Thursday in floor exercise. Thursday Sommer was so worried about the fall that, when she walked off the floor, she looked at her teammates, smiled and said, "Whoops."
And then there's the Amazin' Metz. Friday was her last day of competition ever. The most consistent gymnast ever in Utah's program, the NCAA all-around record-holder (39.95) did not make any event finals.
Teammates Woolsey, Sommer and Caudle made the balance beam finals and Trepanier the floor finals, and BYU's Liz Crandall made the bar finals to be decided tonight.
But Metz will be in the stands. She has never won an individual championship, though she was second on vault in 1994 and tied for third in the all-around on Thursday night. She received that award in post-meet ceremonies Friday prior to the team awards.
"It'll be hard to sit in the stands tomorrow. It will be hard tonight knowing I'm done," said Metz. "But there's so much I want to do. I like the person gymnastics has made me."
Because Woolsey fell on the bars Thursday night - the night that event finalists are chosen - she has no chance to defend her 1994 NCAA co-championship on bars tonight.