A Utah gymnastics team that hadn't competed well away from its Huntsman Center home in 2002 found a way to get things done on the road when it counted Saturday night in the NCAA West Regional at Oregon State.
Behind a 39.675 all-around score that included a perfect 10.0 on beam from junior Theresa Kulikowski and strong performances from senior Shannon Bowles, sophomore Melissa Vituj and freshman Annabeth Eberle, the Utes had no trouble winning the West in Corvallis.
They beat the home team 197.10-196.80 to advance to the 2002 NCAA Championships April 18-20 at the University of Alabama. Oregon State also advances after upsetting ninth-ranked Oklahoma, which totaled 196.625.
The night was not a good one for this state's other three teams.
BYU placed fourth in the South Central Regional at Arizona State, and Utah State (North Central) and Southern Utah (West) were last in their regionals.
The top two finishers in each of the nation's six regional meets advance to Tuscaloosa, Ala., in two weeks.
OSU was one of two teams to pull an upset, beating a team that was seeded among the top 12. The other was 15th-ranked Florida, which finished second to LSU at the Central Region ahead of No. 7 Iowa State, whose season is now done.
Utah's score was the third-highest of the night in any region, trailing a 197.90 by Alabama at in the Southeast at West Virginia and 197.425 by No. 1-ranked UCLA at Tempe.
It took some grit for the Utes to come out of a road meet without counting a fall for the first time all season. On beam, Eberle hung on to open with 9.725, but Kim Allan fell. Senior Deidra Graham, who fell in vault, hung on through a harrowing wobble for a 9.7. Vituj righted the ship with a 9.85, Bowles hit 9.95 and Kulikowski 10.0 to cement Utah's easy win.
Had Graham taken a tumble on beam, it might have been the first time in its 27 years that Utah didn't make it to the national-championship field. As it is, the Utes are still the only team to have qualified for all 21 NCAA-sanctioned nationals. "Obviously, all the teams were competing well at this region tonight," said Ute coach Greg Marsden. "We were not going to come out of this counting a fall.
"It wasn't a perfect meet for us, but it's our first road meet all year where we haven't counted a fall, and I feel like we're on a bit of a roll."
Marsden said it was clear during warm-ups that Graham, nursing four bulging disks in her back and unable to practice much all season, was going to struggle. "But she is such a fighter. She did a great job of hanging on. What I like about Deidra is that even on an off night, she finds a way to compete."
Kulikowski's work was superb again. Her 10.0 was one of two across the nation, and her all-around total was the second-highest of any in the six regionals. UCLA's Jamie Dantzscher scored 39.70, but she had no 10s.
Marsden noted Bowles' role in Kulikowski's night. "She set 'Kulio' up on beam, and I thought her routine was every bit as good as Theresa's. Judges don't throw out 10s in the postseason, so the fact that three judges gave 'Kulio' a 10 (the low and high scores are dropped) show how good she was. She was that good on all of her events, except for a small step on vault."
He said Bowles was, too, save for a little landing step on bars. He said she participated in a decision to stay out of vault because her warm-ups weren't as good as she wanted.
Eberle, the nation's top recruit this season, finally hit all four events, as did the team. "Annabeth epitomized our team. We've been so close. I hoped she and our team would learn to put everything together as the season went on, and they did tonight," Marsden said.
SUU bit off a 47.275 to open the night on bars and never recovered, placing last at Corvallis at 193.35, though freshman Carly Geronimo had a 39.025 all-around total.
At the North Central Regional at Denver University, the Aggies were done in by a 48.10 on beam and finished last in the six-team meet, scoring 193.40. No. 3-ranked Georgia and No. 10 Stanford tied for the win and the two berths at nationals, each scoring 196.125.
BYU also found the bars a rough event, scoring 48.125 with Kelly Evanson falling on her dismount and Jeni Lopez taking an extra swing. The Cougars (194.0) finished fourth at Tempe, behind Arizona State (194.95) and Arizona (194.875). BYU simply couldn't come up with a high event score to offset that bars set.
"It wasn't as if we were out of the game," said BYU coach Brad Cattermole. "We just never got on the roll we needed."
BYU's Jaime Mabray just missed qualifying to advance to nationals as an all-arounder, tying for the second spot at 38.90 but losing a tiebreaker procedure that took into account the highest event score for each individual. Mabray had 9.8, but ASU's Laura Moon had a 9.825.
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