| OCR Text |
Show MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7, THE DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE 2000 11 Utes Rally on Floor to Edge BYU BRANDON WINN Chronicle Sports Editor winning streak corne to end. Fortunately for the Utes, they were able to ally for an unusual victory at home to keep the streak alive at 154. "It was a good first step back after a tough week," Marsden said. "A let of people did a nice job seizing the opportunity." Those opportunity-seizin- g people were Denise Jones, Deidra Graham and Ashley Kever. After Leah Sabo fell during her final tumbling pass of her floor routine, Jones, Graham and Kever knew they had to stick their routines if the Utes were going to stand a corne-from-behi- Three laps down, only one to go. Shockingly, Utah wasn't already two laps ahead. In fact, the Utes were a little'bit behind the BYU Cougars. With an upset in the making, Utah coach Greg Mars-de- n pulled his team together during the pit stop between events and refueled his gymnasts by offering the simplest of advice. Floor it. The Utes did, and because they were able to score a season-hig- h 49.525 on the floor exercise, they squeaked 0 the closest home meet for by BYU, Utah since 1996. "We were lucky to get out of this one with a win," Marsden said. "Not because we didn't perform well, but because BYU was so good tonight." In a week featuring the loss of their star Theresa Kulikowski, the Utes answered their critics by recording their second highest total of the season. That's why just barely beating the Cougars isn't a disappointment. Utah scored well and would have had a tough time, even if Kulikowski had been healthy and in the rotation. BYU's score was by far its best for the season. And if three Utes hadn't swooped in late to save the home- day, Utah could have seen its over-matche- chance. "I was biting my nails worrying that someone else would sit down on one of their tumbling passes," Marsden said. "All three of them had to land, otherwise it's over." Jones went first and launched herself to a 9.950 a new career high while showing absolutely no signs that the meet was on the line. Fueled by Jones' dominance, Graham tied her season high by scoring a 9.900, continuing her rise to stardom. None of it would have mattered, though, if Kever 196.300-195.80- couldn't stick her routine. "T knew that going in," Kever said. "I could hear BYU's scores and knew that I had to hit. I like that pressure going in." She must. Kever pulled off a nearly flawless perfor- see GYMNASTICS, page Thaiiks to a season-hig- h score on floor and some clutch performances, Utah was able to rally and defeat the BYU Cougars Friday night. 14 M arsden Wants to See Eoad Warriors 3 . f'S t ! 1 A v ''Jwl ft . t. , ; v Marsden was upset his team didn't perform well and attributed some of that to the difficulty of com- BRANDON WINN Chronicle Spot tstditor LSU. Hopefully, Utah has been able to catch its breath by now. Three days after narrowly escaping BYU, the Utes must turn right around and face another rival tonight when they head to Logan for a meet with the Utah State A.ggies. With little time to recover from the team's meet with the Cougars, Utah coach Greg Marsden is hoping his team can find the same kind of energy on the road it competed with at home on Friday. "We've had three pretty good meets; but all three have been at our place," Marsden said. "We need to do s better job on the road. I hope that we can take our first step to becoming a good road team against Utah State. It will be a good test for us." Utah has already faced the Aggies once this season and pretty much peting on the road. "We had a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes at LSU," Marsden said. "We're going to have to get used to competing on the road." To be fair, Logan is not the most intimidating place in the world unless you're a vegan. Then you'll be overrun by beef and dairy supplies. Otherwise, Logan is like a Martin Short film difficult to attend for in-sta- te ( ' a , 5 ' destroyed them, winning Utah State was out of the running after the first event, vhen it had two competitors fall on bars and the rest record major mistakes in 195.475-190.37- 5. their routines. Even with Utah performing horribly on beam, falling three times, the team was able to cruise. "I've never seen a team perform so much below its potential," Utah State coach Ray Corn said. "Nights like these make me think about retire- Theresa Wolf and the Utes are at Utah State tonight. ment." If things go Utah's way, Corn will fax letter of resignation immediately following the meet. The Utes would love nothing more than to score huge on the road and silence all their critics, and their coach. Against B YU on Friday, the Utes had something to prove and had one of their best meets of the season. "We all wanted to show that we are a strong team with or without Theresa Kulikowski," Denise Jones said. "We wanted to silence some of our critics who thought our season was basically over." In their only road meet, the Utes had a season low score of 195.125 at in his Ashley Kever stepped up huge on the beam for the Utes in their Friday-nig- ht match against BYU. too long. The Utes vill take anything they can get on the road. They have to start somewhere, so they might as well get their first road victory in a place that won't pese too much of a threat. "It's great to be good at home but you have to good on the road." Marsden said. "That's where Regionals and Nationals are, so you had better get used to competing somewhere other than home." The meet begins at 7 p.m. tonight. The Utes won't compete again until next Monday, Valentine's Day, when UCLA comes to the Jon M. Huntsman Center. |
