I'm not a big fan of gymnastics, but decided to attend Friday's championship. The Red Rocks performed well, but not well enough to unseat last year's champion Georgia and finished 2nd for the second year in a row.
Friday's meet was held at the Huntsman Center and about 10,000 fans were on hand for the event. Utah did well on their floor routine, though nearly found themselves out of championship contention early when Beth Rizzo stepped out of bounds. Utah recovered, however and performed rather well on the vault before having their worst performance of the night, which was on the bars. Nina Kim stumbled on her dismount and she received a score of 9.65. However, Utah couldn't throw that score away, as Daria Bijak fell on her dismount and essentially assured the Red Rocks no chance of claiming the national championship -- which would have been the program's 11th.
Utah ended the night on a high note, scoring well on the balance beam. They were pretty much out of championship contention, sitting at the middle of the pack prior to the set, but still were looking for a strong finish. Staring down a mediocre finish, Utah came alive and had their most impressive performance of the night. Sophomore Nina Kim recorded her highest score of her career at 9.90 on the beam, while Ashley Postell scored a 9.925. That pushed Utah past Florida for 2nd place and Utah ended with a score of 197.250, which was well behind Georgia's 197.850.
This was a very young Utah team and I expect the Red Rocks to be right back in the Championships next year. It's just a shame they couldn't win it in front of the home fans. Oh well, congratulations to the lady's for a helluva performance.