Veronique Leclerc, a five-time member of the Canadian national gymnastics team and an internationally experienced competitor, had let it be known that she wasn't interested in taking a scholarship to an American college.
In French-speaking Quebec, where Leclerc grew up, going to school in the U.S. wasn't especially popular because of language differences. Additionally, Leclerc was tired of the sport after doing it since she was 4 or 5.
A year ago, she began to change her mind. She looked at media guides she'd been sent and considered Michigan and Utah and no one else, though other schools would certainly have wanted the powerful vaulter and bar-worker who was 28th all-around in the 1997 World Championships.
"Without question, she was one of the best people out last year," says Utah coach Greg Marsden. As soon as he returned from Boise from the 2000 NCAA Championships, he called Leclerc again. "What I was most concerned about was that Michigan was much closer (to Quebec)," he said.
"I knew Utah was probably the one," says Leclerc, now a Ute freshman who made a terrific splash March 23 when she was pressed into last-minute all-around duty by a pre-meet injury to fellow freshman Annie Medcalf.
In her first-ever collegiate all-around, with only a few minutes' notice, Leclerc had the best freshman debut ever by a Ute, scoring 39.675, tying the seventh-best score in Utah history.
"She stepped up and did the job when we needed her," Marsden says. "She scored very similar to what (injured) Deidra (Graham, ranked ninth in NCAA all-around) was scoring and was instrumental to our win." Utah defeated BYU 197.925-197.375 in a meet that was close until midway through the last event.
Utah had a scholarship available for the late signing period last spring only because Marsden was hoping to lure two-time Canadian Olympian Yvonne Tousek, who eventually signed instead with UCLA.
Getting Leclerc in the late signing period "was a real feather in our caps," says Marsden. In some ways she's a better catch than the elegant Tousek because Leclerc's powerful vaulting boosts Utah's weakest event. "She's the first legitimate vaulter we've had in a number of years," Marsden says. "Everyone else, we've had to try to teach them to vault."
Leclerc is tied for fifth in the national vault rankings, with a Regional Qualifying Score of 9.915, and has won vault in eight of Utah's 12 meets.
By ranking, Leclerc will be the second-best vaulter in Saturday's North Central NCAA Regional meet at Utah's Huntsman Center starting at 6 p.m. West Virginia's TeShawne Jackson is second nationally (9.955 RQS).
Utah, ranked fifth, is the top seed in its own regional with No. 8 Iowa State and No. 17 West Virginia assigned to the field that also includes No. 24 Denver, No. 30 Utah State and No. 43 Air Force, making its first-ever post-season appearance.
With Graham likely back from a knee injury, Leclerc probably won't do all-around at the regional, though Marsden now knows he can count on her in a pinch. She will probably do vault and bars (where she has five 9.9-or-better scores).
That means she can ease into the frenetic six-team regional format that is a qualifier for the top two teams to the NCAA Championships April 19-21 at Georgia. "I have no idea what it's going to be like," says Leclerc, "but we need to see it like a regular meet."
After she'd decided on Utah, Leclerc experienced trepidation. "I was really scared before I came that I wouldn't do good and understand people," she says. She spoke English learned at her many gymnastics competitions, and she started reading and watching American TV shows to prepare.
At first, it was hard to be in classes learning and taking notes in English because she didn't have time to translate them to French as the teachers spoke. But she shouldn't have worried. Leclerc, leaning toward exercise and sport science with a minor in anthropology, had a 3.925 grade average her first semester. "I really like it," she says of college life.
One of her happiest times was in early February when her parents, a mechanical engineer and a medical secretary, visited and she took them to Park City's Main Street and they skied Brighton. They had put her into recreational gymnastics when she was 4 or 5, and she liked it too much to try much else.
E-MAIL: lham@desnews.com