In 1989, Utah was fifth at the NCAA gymnastics championships.
FIFTH.For a program that had won six straight national titles and been no lower than second in the 1980s, being fifth was like being shot. No wait, it was worse.
The next year, there was anger in the gym. How dare we tarnish ourselves like that.
Utah dressed in daring neon pink and wrenched back the 1990 championship. It won in 1992, 1994 and 1995, as well.
Now it's 1998, and the Utes are coming off a seventh-place finish at nationals.
SEVENTH.
They didn't even compete on Super Six Night - the very first time that had ever happened.
There were mitigating circumstances - Traci Sommer and Summer Reid were sick, and Utah really tied for the right to advance but lost the tiebreaker - but there's a familiar sense of indignation in the gym, so don't be surprised if the Utes climb right back onto the beam for 1998.
"Yeah, it bothered us," says coach Greg Marsden says of last year's finish. "We don't go to nationals to watch," he snorts, remembering sitting in the bleachers on Friday's Super Six Night at the University of Florida, seeing UCLA beat Arizona State for its first title.
Utah has won 10 national team titles, more than three times as many as the nearest competitor. Six championships came in the 1980s, four in the '90s.
"There is definitely a greater determination this year," observes Marsden, whose team begins its 23rd season by hosting Arizona Friday night at 7 in the Huntsman Center.
"The practices are more aggressive, and the freshmen (Shannon Bowles, Theresa Wolf and Marilyn Ekdahl) fall in line with what's going on in the gym," Marsden says.
The routines the Utes are doing now, to begin the season, he says, are in many cases better and more difficult than the ones they did at the NCAAs last April, particularly on vault and bars, and the Ute beam team is still the best.
Although the Ute coaches still place a premium on execution, Mars-den says last year's nationals taught the coaching staff that upgraded difficulty is a necessity. "More teams being competitive means we have to do tougher rou-tines," he says.
Also, the rules have changed to combat the glut of perfect 10 scores. Each routine will now have a 9.5 start value, instead of 9.6, meaning more bonus points must be incorporated to reach the accustomed 9.8s and 9.9s. Many styles of vaults have been devalued, but the roundoff-entry vault, always banned in collegiate competition, is now acceptable, and the vault horse may be raised one notch from 120 centimeters to 125 centimeters to accommodate taller gymnasts.
Execution errors are supposed to be a focal point for judges this season. That could favor finesse teams like Utah and Alabama and perhaps hurt high-difficulty teams like Georgia, UCLA and Michigan.
Utah opens '98 with two significant injuries, having lost sophomore Jenny Schmidt for the sec-ond straight year to knee surgery and losing, at least for part of the season, some of Reid's services after wrist surgeries in May and August were unable to clear up a problem.
Reid, two-time defending NCAA beam champion, cannot do a back handspring because of the wrist injury, and that skill is integral to doing a required tumbling series on the beam. It's also an important part of most floor-exercise tumbling passes. She's trying to learn a one-handed back handspring, and Ute coaches are wracking their brains for alternatives. "I really think we'll get that resolved within a month," Marsden says.
Schmidt had surgery in March to correct a misaligned kneecap, returned last fall in superb physical shape, then reinjured the knee in training and had more extensive surgery in late December. She hopes to return late in the season in one event.
Additionally, there are nagging hurts that every team experiences. They include Ashley Kever being a little tender on two sprained ankles and coming off shoulder surgery, and Angie Leonard and Molly Northrop suffering shin problems.
"The good thing is," says Marsden, "that we're a little deeper team. The three freshmen will get experience."
If last Friday's first-ever Red/White Scrimmage was any indication, the freshmen would earn playing time even if there weren't other problems. They were outstanding in the scrimmage, while the veterans, said Marsden, went into the scrimmage without a sense of urgency and weren't as sharp.
Bowles, seventh in December's Chunichi Cup in Japan and a current member of the U.S. national team, was most impressive in the scrimmage, and Ekdahl delighted Marsden because she was out of gymnastics for two years but looked like she'd never left. Ekdahl comes from the same club as former Ute walk-on Meredith King. She signed with Utah last spring and, with little training, went to the '97 Junior Olympic Championships.
Utah is also stocked with proven talent in captain Sommer (39.70 career best, third in '97 NCAA beam), the lone senior; Reid and Angie Leonard, who blossomed as a sophomore. Leonard was a two-event NCAA All-American, won the Midwest Regional all-around, vault and bars and ranked fifth nationally with a 39.497 regional qualifying score.
The Northrop twins (Molly 39.15 high, Sarah 39.125 high) are due for good and healthy junior years, and sophomore Denise Jones (39.175) is a steady performer. Sophomore Kever was limited by shoulder problems last season but contributed strongly to the NCAA's best beam team (by statistics). Sophomore Angelika Schatton of Germany, who joined the team this time last year with no training, has had a year to get acclimated and lends an international touch that impresses judges.
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Additional Information
Utah Women's Gymnastics 1998 Schedule
JANUARY: 16 - Arizona
23 - at Michigan.
FEBRUARY: 2 - at Utah State
6 - Brigham Young
13 - Minnesota
20 - at Washington
27 - Utah State
MARCH: 6 - at Stanford
14 - Oregon State
21 - at Brigham Young
APRIL: 4 - at NCAA Midwest Regional, Tempe, Ariz.
16-18 - at NCAA Championships, UCLA, Los Angeles
Preseason Gymnastics Rankings
Rank School Points 1. UCLA (11) 444
2. Georgia (5) 422
3. Arizona State (3) 375
4. Michigan (2) 372
5. Utah (1) 365
6. Alabama 335
7. Nebraska 305
8. Florida (1) 276
9. Washington 258
10. Louisiana State 233
NOTE: First-place votes in parentheses
Utah's '98 roster
Coach: Greg Marsden
Associate coach: Megan Marsden
Assistant coach: Aki Hummel
Name Year Ht. Hometown
Shannon Bowles Fr. 5-0 Lee, N.H.
Marilyn Ekdahl Fr. 5-0 San Marcos, Calif.
Denise Jones So. 5-4 Sacramento, Calif.
Ashley Kever So. 5-3 Austin, Texas
Angie Leonard* Jr. 5-2 Tempe, Ariz.
Molly Northrop* Jr. 5-0 Peoria, Ill.
Sarah Northrop* Jr. 4-11 Peoria, Ill.
Summer Reid* ** Jr. 5-3 Reno, Nev.
Angelika Schatton So. 5-1 Plate, Germany
Jenny Schmidt So. 5-3 Kenosha, Wis.
Traci Sommer* Sr. 4-10 Chatham, N.J.
Theresa Wolf Fr. 5-1 Dundas, Ontario
*-All-Americans; **-National champion