Red Rocks Compete for National Title

The Utah Red Rocks gymnastics have qualified for a record 40th-consecutive national championship and will begin competition at the 2015 NCAA Championships on Friday, Apr. 17 in the Fort Worth Convention Center Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. Utah is seeking a record 11th national championship, having last won a national title in 1995. The Pac-12 Champion Red Rocks will compete in the afternoon semifinal at 1 p.m. CT (noon MT) along with Florida, UCLA, Georgia, Michigan and Stanford. The top three finishers from the two semifinals (the second starts at 7 p.m. CT) will advance to the Super Six on Saturday, Apr. 18 at 6 p.m. CT (5 p.m. MT). Individual event finals are scheduled for Sunday, Apr. 19 at 2 p.m. CT (1 p.m. MT). Friday's semifinal sessions will be streamed live on www.ncaa.com. The Super Six on Saturday and the event finals on Sunday will be broadcast live online on ESPN3. For live Utah updates, follow twitter.com/utahathletics.

No. 3 Utah is the nation's top-ranked team on both vault (49.560 RQS) and bars (49.500 RQS). Georgia Dabritz, who finished second on bars at the 2013 NCAA Championships, is ranked No. 1 in the nation on the event (9.975 RQS), a position she held for the last five weeks of the rankings. A Red Rock has won every bar competition this year, with Dabritz claiming 10 victories and Corrie Lothrop winning twice. The Red Rocks have four vaulters ranked in the top 25, although No. 8 Tory Wilson is out for the season with an injury that she suffered in the Pac-12 Championship meet. Becky Tutka holds the school record for consecutive routines without a fall (79). She is 79-of-79 in her career.

The Red Rocks have defeated UCLA (2-0), Michigan (1-0), and Stanford (2-0), all at the Huntsman Center this season and were defeated by Georgia (0-2), falling at Georgia and in the regional semifinal. Utah has not faced Florida this season. Utah has not made the Super Six since 2012.

Co-head coaches Greg Marsden and Megan Marsden have won back-to-back Pac-12 Coach of the Year awards and also shared the 2015 North Central Region Coach of the Year award. Greg is in his 40th year overall as the head coach and Megan is in sixth year as co-head coach and her 31st year overall on the staff. Greg is the winningest coach in NCAA gymnastics history (1,040-207-7) and his 10 national championships is tied for the most in the country. He has taken his teams to the national championships every year since his first season back in 1976. He has a regular season record of 485-82-3. Megan has a 124-46-1 career record (57-15-1 regular season).

Utah has qualified for every national championship since the 1975-76 season under head coach Greg Marsden and is making a record 40th appearance this year. The Utes are also the only program to qualify for all 34 NCAA Championships to date and have won a record-tying 10 national championships (9 NCAA championships). Utah's semifinal on Apr. 17 features four of the six teams ever to win an NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championship: Georgia (10), Utah (9 NCAA, 10 total), Florida (2*) and UCLA (6). The remaining member of the early session is Stanford. The evening semifinal contains Oklahoma (1* NCAA title), Alabama (6), LSU, Auburn, Nebraska and Oregon State. *Tied for the 2014 NCAA Championship. The NCAA champion has won its qualifying session 19 times in 22 years under the present Super Six format: Georgia in 1993, 1998, 1999, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009; Alabama in 1996, 2002, 2011 and 2012; UCLA in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2010; Florida in 2013 and 2014 (tied for first) and Oklahoma (2014). Utah won the NCAA title in 1994 and 1995, after finishing second and third, respectively, in the qualifying round. UCLA took first place in 1997 after placing second in the semifinals.

Utah lost senior co-captain Tory Wilson, its highest-ranked all-arounder, a seven-time All-American (including two regular season All-America awards this year) and the 2014 Pac-12 Gymnast of the Year for the season at the Pac-12 Championship on Mar. 21. Wilson won the vault with a 10.0 and scored a 9.90 on bars and 9.875 on beam before rupturing her right Achilles tendon and breaking her left foot during the first pass of her floor routine. She finished her season ranked No. 9 in the nation in the all-around (39.485 RQS) and No. 8 on vault (9.940 RQS). Wilson is a three-time first-team All-Pac-12 selection and the 2014 Pac-12 all-around champion. Utah's two-time co-MVP was the 2013 NCAA North Central Region Gymnast of the Year and the 2013 regional vault champion. She finished her career with three perfect 10.0s on vault.

Without Wilson, Utah will rely even more heavily on sensational senior Georgia Dabritz, the 2015 Pac-12 Gymnast of the Year and 13-time All-American. She has the second-best all-around score in the country this year (39.775 at the Pac-12 Championship) and is No. 1 in the nation on bars with a 9.975 RQS. Dabritz won bars in 10 of 12 meets this season, including the NCAA Berkeley Regional Championship. Dabritz won every event and the all-around at regionals, scoring a 9.95 on vault, bars and floor, a 9.90 on beam and a 39.75 in the all-around. She has four 10.0s this season (3 on bars and 1 on vault) and seven perfect scores in her career. Dabritz has 31 victories this season and 83 career wins.

If the Red Rocks finish in the top three on Friday, they will compete on Saturday, Apr. 18 at 6 p.m. CT (5 p.m. MT) in the Super Six for a chance to win their 11th national title. Coverage of the Super Six will be provided via live streaming on ESPN3.