BOISE — The magic continued for the Utes on Saturday night — that night that Utah senior Denise Jones referred to on Thursday as "poopy" because it's for individual honors and not for team glory.
Jones, the captain who seemed to will her broken team into an incredible second-place finish in the 2000 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships on Friday night in the Boise State Pavilion, heaped more glory on herself and the U. in the event finals Saturday night with a silver medal on floor and a fourth-place finish on beam.
Also, senior Jenny Schmidt, competing in the NCAA championships for the first time in her career that was wracked with season-ending injuries, made it to the awards stand on bars with a fifth place, and senior Angelika Schatton hit her beam routine cleanly and placed seventh. Sophomore Deidra Graham fell on beam and was 11th.
NCAA individual championships went to Nebraska's NCAA all-around champion Heather Brink on vault (9.95), UCLA's Mohini Bhardwaj (9.95) on bars, UCLA's Lena Degteva (9.913) on beam and Georgia's Suzanne Sears (9.95) on floor.
"It's just a great ending for these people, for the team to do so well last night and all three seniors to do so well tonight," said Utah coach Greg Marsden, calling Schmidt's story "heartwarming, a tear-jerker" because of the way she missed the NCAAs after an injury late in her most-consistent freshman season and then couldn't compete at all as a sophomore and junior because of knee surgeries. It even took her time to get into the bars lineup this season.
Jones, who started training last fall as maybe Utah's third- or fourth-best all-arounder but was almost forced to take over by injuries to Theresa Kulikowski and Shannon Bowles, concluded a remarkable season with a 9.85 beam set.
It was then followed by an unconscious routine on the floor for an NCAA silver medal in one of those events on which she always seems underscored for reasons that have totally puzzled the Ute coaching staff for years because of the difficulty of her routine.
Jones, the second performer to go on floor, finally got some recognition with a 9.913 score (rounded up from an actual 9.9125 by the NCAA) that was the night's best floor score until Sears came up second-to-last in the nine-woman field with two reverse tumbling stunts on the same pass.
"I just wanted to have a good time tonight. I was really tired. All I could do was let it happen because I wasn't going to make it happen," she said of a nearly flawless floor routine that completed her career.
"It was fun. It was a nice way to go out," added Jones, who admitted that for the first time she actually watched the scores of the floorworkers who came after her but wished them no ill. "Before the meet I told people the best way this meet could happen is for everyone to hit. The girl that won completely should have won."
Schmidt could hardly contain her joy to have made the awards stand at 9.875. Schmidt was just .13 behind a tie for third place at 9.888 by Degteva and Pickens.
"It wasn't my best," Schmidt said, grinning like she'd just won the Olympics, "but my goal was to stick my dismount, and I did that. I had to work at it — it didn't just happen," she said of the final routine of her too-short career. "I am so happy.
"It was a great year, and I'm not pushing my luck," she said, giggling, in answer to whether she might now consider trying to get another year of medical-hardship eligibility from the NCAA. She plans on making it to medical school instead.
"It was a great ending — both of them," said Schatton, another senior who grew stronger throughout the season as injuries and illness took four performers and an assistant coach from the team. By "both of them," she meant Friday's second place in the team competition by a team that was thrilled just to have qualified to be on the floor on Super Six championships night, plus her own personal 9.80 ending on the beam Saturday.
"My routine wasn't perfect, but I stayed on and didn't make huge mistakes," said Schatton, Utah's import from the Eastern side of Germany.
"It was pretty exciting yesterday," she added about the team finish as Utah rocketed from fourth to second through the course of the meet.
Ute sophomore Graham, so strong through the first two days of the meet with a 39.275 all-around total on team preliminary day to help Utah make the Super Six, and 39.325 in Friday's Super Six, knew her Saturday beam routine was off from almost the beginning and finally let go with a fall and a big smile. "I'm glad it happened tonight (when it didn't cost the team) instead of last night," she said.
She was almost shocked to be in beam finals after competing only part-time on that event as a freshman last year.
"We could not have hoped for anything better," Marsden said in summary of the three-day NCAAs as they applied to Utah. "We had a good first night but left room for improvement. Friday everyone hit their stuff and nobody walked away feeling disappointed, and then tonight."