December 9, 2006

Utes 'rock' in annual gym preview

By Linda Hamilton
Deseret Morning News

Utah's gymnastics team has been doing its Red Rocks Preview night for about four years now, but usually the team does fairly watered-down routines, since there is still a month to go before the season starts.

Sarah Ause, Deseret Morning NewsU. gymnast Kristina Baskett is well-armed in her floor routine Friday night. Friday night in the Huntsman Center, though, coach Greg Marsden said his team — with a big and high-powered freshman class of six to introduce to a fan base that this 2007 season will get to witness the national championships on the same floor in late April — really wanted to get after it right away.

The result was bigger skills — a couple of Arabian somersaults on floor and many of the things the Utes will throw in their first real meet Jan. 12 in the Huntsman against UCLA — and bigger mistakes.

No injuries.

And the mistakes were as much fun as the hits as Marsden — holding a live microphone so he could explain high points of routines and talk about new athletes — publicly teased gymnasts who erred. And they gave some of it right back to him, half of the time while surrounded by hundreds of children who were invited down to the floor to sit near the vault and bars and watch up-close.

"It's a fun event, to get the kids down on the floor with us, interacting with the athletes a little bit," said Marsden. "Obviously, it is a very relaxed environment. (We) try to make it fun and give people a little more information than they would get at meets, and it gives our athletes an opportunity to get out in front of people again and begin to get comfortable in that environment."

Highlights for Marsden included freshman Sarah Shire's one-armed balance beam routine. She has two broken bones in her right elbow but wanted to participate so much that she learned two new one-armed skills so she could — and that improves her difficulty, Marsden said.

He was also pleased with freshman Annie DiLuzio's work on vault and beam. "On floor, she overrotated a very difficult Arabian double-front. She was nailing them in warmups. She was going for it," he said.

"We tried to do a lot of difficulty tonight. Some of it we had success with, and some of it we didn't. The girls wanted to be a little more aggressive because they want to open up the season with this stuff, and they wanted to get it out here on the floor in the Huntsman Center."

Senior captain Nicolle Ford and sophomore Kristina Baskett opened floor with double layouts that are new, and junior Ashley Postell and DiLuzio want to use their Arabians right away.

Through the practice season, Marsden has been pleasantly surprised with the work done by juniors Jessica Duke of Sandy and Katie Kivisto, who have each had difficulty making the lineups at times. "They have really accepted the challenge of coming back knowing they had to step up and do a great job for us with all the freshmen we have. They are so much better," he said.

"I really wanted to be in as much of the lineup as I could. I tried that last year," said Duke, who showed well in most of her events Friday. "I just really want it." DiLuzio said her first experience on the Huntsman floor "was amazing. It seems like it has taken so long to get here. Just being in here with all the people and getting used to the equipment was really nice."

She said she and the other freshmen all felt some nerves, "but I think I got most of them out tonight," which is part of the idea. Her freshman teammates "were all smiling. In the beginning, they were a little bit looking scared, but toward the end, everybody was smiling and looking like they were having a good time."