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Utah gymnastics competes in NCAA regional: Olympic sports weekend open chat

Here's a thread to discuss all your Utah sports this weekend. Gymnastics starts their bid for a championship and baseball and softball get at it.

By Avinash Kunnath
Russ Isabella-USA TODAY Sports

Gymnastics

The biggest event in the week takes place in Fayetteville, where the Utes look to finish among the top two teams and earn a spot in the semifinals at the Women's Gymnastics Championship.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like there are any options for watching this event.

How to watch: Good news is that there should be a live stream available via the Razorbacks website! You can also track  the live stats tracker and the team's Twitter feed for updates.

Here are some links on the Red Rocks.

Georgia Dabritz has enjoyed an incredible season, but she knows that the work is far from done.

She’s won 22 event titles this year, including victories on vault, bars and floor at the Pac-12 championship meet two weeks ago. She was named the specialist of the year by the league’s coaches, and just earned first-team All-America honors on bars and floor and second-team honors on vault.

Dabritz leads the country on bars and is third on the floor. She was the NCAA runner-up on bars last year, and has only lost one time on the apparatus this year.

But while the accolades and successes continue to pour in for the junior star, she’s the first to admit there is still a lot of work to be done with NCAA regionals ahead on Saturday and NCAA championships later this month. So to keep herself focused on the end prize, Dabritz has instilled a forget-about-the-last-meet-and-move-on mentality.

Nansy Damianova talked about the transition from being an Olympic athlete to being on a collegiate team.

"I used to be home and didn’t really have a team … [it was] very individual," Damianova said. "Something that I had a hard time getting used to was being in a team. I think just finally understanding how it is, I think that’s something I’ve really embraced. Just being able to share success with other people and not just competing for yourself and hoping you do well, but hoping your teammates do well. We’re all so happy for each other."

Melissa Yack of the Deseret News checks up on gymnastics coach Greg Mardsen.

"I think if you’re not excited or don’t have some nerves, you don’t care. If you don’t care, you shouldn’t do this anymore," said Greg Marsden.

"You’re in postseason, everything hinges on one meet. It makes it a little nerve-wracking, but I’m excited about possibilities."

Mardsen was also prescient enough to book tickets in advance of the trip to Fayetteville. As you can imagine, many of the West Coast teams have had logistical headaches trying to plan their trip to the West.

Marsden, who estimates he’ll spend between $25,000 to $30,000 this weekend, thought he was in the clear when he found enough seats on airlines connecting through Dallas to get a travel party of 23 to Fayetteville. However, he had a hard time finding a bus to rent in Fayetteville, because almost all the buses available in the area were headed to Dallas for the Final Four events.

All of the travel headaches have left the teams wondering if there isn’t a better way of devising the regions.

Is the injured Corrie Lothrop ready to go if they need her?

"It feels really good," she said with a huge smile. "I am still taking care of it and making sure my body can hold up, but so far so good. It’s awesome to be back out there."

Lothrop’s availability presents the Utes with an interesting decision as they prepare for Saturday’s NCAA Regional Championships in Fayetteville, Ark. Do the Utes take a chance and go with Lothrop in the hopes her presence could boost the score a bit or do they stick with the tried and true lineup?

Elsewhere

Baseball: The Utes will not be on TV this week, but you should be able to watch them online via live stream. Utah will host Arizona at Spring Mobile Park for a three game stand on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and you should be able to watch all of the games on Pac-12.com.

All the games are schedule to take place at 11 am Mountain Time. Click here for the stream link.

The baseball team has yet to win a game in Pac-12 play, but they should have a good shot to notch some wins against Arizona. The Wildcats are 2-7 in conference play and 12-18 overall.

Softball: In your only televised action of the weekend, the Utes will host Oregon State. Here's the TV schedule for the weekend.

Friday, April 4th: 6 p.m. Mountain (Pac-12 Networks)
Saturday, April 5th: 6 p.m. Mountain (Pac-12 Networks)
Sunday, April 6th: noon Mountain (Pac-12 Oregon, Washington, Mountain)

The softball team is 12-15 so far this year with a 1-7 start in conference play. They were recently swept on a three game road trip to UCLA. They are 3-4 at home though and will look to improve on that home mark against an 11-18 Beavers squad that’s 2-5 in conference.

Tennis: The Utah men’s team heads to Oregon to take on the 27th ranked Ducks today, then travels to Seattle to battle the Huskies on Sunday. The women's team trips to Arizona to play the 35th ranked Wildcats on Friday, with the Sun Devils next up on Saturday.

Track and field: Utah will compete at the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto All Day on Friday and Saturday.

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