BOISE — If Utah had won Friday night, it could hardly have made a better story.
As it was, the Utes rose up and bit off a startling second-place finish at the 2000 NCAA Championships at Boise State University, clocking in at 196.875 to super-power UCLA's title-winning 197.300 in the Super Six finals.
Georgia, champion the last two years, placed third at 196.80, Nebraska was fourth at 196.725, Alabama fifth at 196.500 and Michigan, one of the co-favorites, tumbled to 195.725 and sixth.
It was Utah's best-ever score at the national championships, and it came on a fantastic finish on the team's last and worst event — a 49.40 in vaulting, by far a season high, just .15 off its best vaulting score in history and Utah's best event score of these championships. That score shot Utah past Alabama for second place. The Utes had surpassed Nebraska with 49.35 on floor exercise in the rotation before that.
It is Utah's highest finish since back-to-back NCAA championships in 1994 and 1995. The Utes did so well, supporters went around talking like they'd actually won.
"It was our peak performance," said coach Greg Marsden, whose team didn't have a fall, going 24-for-24 for the first time in this trying season accomplished with its two best all-arounders out all year with injuries. They scored at least 49.00 on every event, and only they and UCLA did that in the tougher judging at national finals.
"For them to perform like that on the last night — we have accomplished everything we could this year. We couldn't have done a better job," Marsden said.
"I'd rather have gone out and been second (with a great meet) than had a mediocre meet and win because somebody else fell," said junior Theresa Wolf, who came back from two falls on Thursday night in the prelims to nail both of those events (9.85 bars, 9.8 beam), score 9.85 on floor and 9.9 in the vault — a performance that would have totaled 39.425 if all-around scores were kept on Super Six night. "It wasn't going to happen again," she said of the falls. The all-around total ties her career high.
"We couldn't have done any better," Wolf said.
"And what a comeback by this girl here (Wolf)," said senior captain Denise Jones. "It's a meet we'll remember all of our lives."
Jones totaled 39.375 on Friday with a 9.9 vault, 9.75 bars, 9.825 beam and 9.9 floor and leads a group of three Utes (also Deidra Graham and Jenny Schmidt) into tonight's individual-event championships.
"This means so much more to me than the event finals," said Jones. "We did prove something."
With Marsden the latest person to be hobbling from a partial hamstring tear suffered during pre-meet warmups, the Utes, who have lost four athletes and an assistant coach for the season to injury or illness, uncorked a vault performance that had Marsden trying to jump up and down on one leg. Even he was shocked at the 49.40 event total. "It was great where it came," he said.
"Ashley started us off," said senior Denise Jones of her fellow senior, Ashley Kever, thrown into the vault lineup by the injuries and scoring 9.7 on both vaults with a 9.8 start value. Freshman Kim Allan bounced in with a career-high 9.9 on her second vault, a 10.0-value.
"She hit like she's never hit it before," said Marsden, who is Utah's vault coach. Allan has attempted the Yurchenko with a half layout maybe seven times in competition.
The Utes were pretty much just happy to have qualified for the Super Six night out of the 12 teams that started the competition on Thursday, so Marsden said they were loose and confident. "Getting here was the big hurdle, and we seemed very relaxed," he said.
They scored 49.00 on what's usually their best event, bars, to open, and then went to beam to score 49.125. "I thought we just wailed on beam, tied with UCLA for the best beam of the night. From there, the Utes went to a bye with floor and the dreaded (for them) vault left.
"We nailed floor, and then we really got rolling," Jones said. "On floor, we had a good time. We were all winking at each other." And Graham finished up her 9.875 floor performance with a big smile, sticking out her tongue in the direction of all the Ute boosters going crazy in the stands.
It was a peak performance by nearly everyone on the team, with all four athletes who went all-around scoring 39.225 (Schatton) or better. Graham had 39.325.
Only UCLA, the favorite to win, did better with all-around totals of 39.625 by Mohini Bhardwaj, 39.525 by Heidi Moneymaker, 39.50 by Lena Degteva and 39.30 by Kristin Parker. It is UCLA's second NCAA championship. It also won in 1997.
It was Utah's fifth second-place at nationals. The Utes have 10 national championships.
Marsden was hurt during pre-meet warmups after he caught Wolf. "I stepped back and felt it pop," Marsden said. He kept spotting on vault warmups and added, "It's minor. It's just untimely." But student trainer Seichiro Nakagaki said Marsden was hurting more than he let on. That is typical for the stoic Ute coach, who suffered a torn biceps tendon three years ago in a spotting accident and had to seek medical help for that.