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Show Ri S 8 MONDAY 112 Daily Utah Chronicle Sweet revenge: Red Rocks topple No. 1 Bruins Matthew Ouellette brilliantly performed by both Chronicle Sports Writer y teams. The competition began with Utah on the uneven bars and UCLA on the vault. While the Utes started strongly with a 9.8 from Dominique D'Oliveira and a 9.775 from Rachel Tidd, the Bruins had two consecutive face plants on the vault After the first rotation was over, the Utes had 0 taken an early The U gymnastics team went into UCLA's Pauley Pavilion Saturday with a chip on its shoulder and an opportunity at hand. Last year, the Bruins came into the Huntsman Center and ended Utah's NCAA record home winning streak at 170 consecutive dual The Chrony presents the 2nd annual Doobie Awards 49.125-4840- NEXT: The Red Rocks really stepped it up on the next rotation, shattering their school vault record by of a point. All six Ute vaulters stuck their vaults, especially Tidd and Eberle, who scored 9.975 and 10, respectively. Eberle's 10 on the vault was the first of her career in that event, and the first for Utah in nine years. UCLA began a short-live- d comeback on the balance beam in the third rotation, led by Richardson's 10. The Utes staved off the Bruin rally with a strong performance on the Utah vs Nebraska Jai 16, 3 p.m. Huntsman Ctr. 1 the Bruins 197.350 106. 375. The victory proved to be important for a number of reasons: The Utes began the i s v t floor. season with the best score in school history, they broke the school vault record, which had been in place since 1993, and they beat UCLA a team that has won three of the last four NCAA championships for the first time in seven tries. The feature competition of the meet had to be the which featured three comof the best petitors in the NCAA. The action lived up to expectations as Jeanette Antolin and Kate Richardson of UCLA and Eberle of Utah each scored a perfect 10 in one of their events, on their way to finishing first, second and first-me- V Gritt Hoffman put up the Utes' best score with a 9.9, and Eberle, Melissa Vituj and Nicole Ford solidified the Utes' floor total score with et 9.875s. In the final rotation, the needed solid performances on the balance beam to close out the win and they got more than that from Hoffman, Eberle, Tidd and especially Vituj who scored a 9.95, finishing off the favored BruUtes ins. "After UCLA ended our record win streak, it was nice to get payback," Marsden said. "This meet was ideal because we were very good, but we weren't perfect There is still room for improvement, which will keep the team motivated in the gym." mcueuetteS'chronicleMtah.edu An-nabe- th third, respectively. These shining performances, however, served merely as highlights in a meet that was Eberle and the Utes pulled off the upset of the top team in the nation, UCLA. fcnr.ct-et- Ute women continue road struggles, fall to Montana Tye Smith Ch'omele Sports Writer wouldn't be getting the job done were it not for Thorburn, Smith's partner in The No. 24 LTtah women's crime. Leading the team in basketball team ) put its assists and minutes played, national Tanking in serious Thorburn's character as a true jeopardy Saturday night by warrior has shown through cropping yet another road as she fills the stat box every night. Against Montana, her pa me. The Utes, who are away scoring was down, but she from home this year, lost a still got it done with four asd sists and a pair of blocks. As Saturday night duel to an coming Montana squad the top player of the young Ute squad, ThorSporting a solid record of burn is averaging 12.6 points, on the season, Montana's 5.9 rebounds and 4.1 assists Lady Griz jumped out to an per game this year. After another suffering tarly lead heft ire the Utes Kick. 1 arty in the second road loss, it has become aphalf, Utah was able to tie it up, parent that the Utes are havhut Montana responded with ing trouble against decent an 0 run that put the team teams when the games are played away from the Huntscp for good. The Uiv's made a run in man Center. he final minutes to bring the At home, the Utes are a perwinning each game pme to within three points, fect tiit a thr point attempt by an average margin of more !hy Ute sophomore standout than 18 points. In fact, the Utes Shitna Thorburn came up just are currently in the midst of a .short as time expired. home winning streak ' . Despite the heartbreaking stretching back to the 2001-0- 2 nature of the narrow loss, U season. But the story has not been head coach Maine Elliott rein. lined positive about the so rosy on the road, as the Utes have struggled to beat game. 'I liked our effort tonight," even average opponents. Last Vc made it a J.Jiiott said. Monday provided a perfect the down stretch and example, as the Utes were pmc ihings just went their way. handled easily by Idaho State They made a couple of big for much of the game. Utah jMays and we didn't." pulled out the win with a late I comeback, but the difficulty Sophomore candidate Kim Smith led the of the victory was a telling viay for the Utes with her sign of the difference in the second consecutive way the Utes play when they e are away. bringing her s career total for Elliott resisted any criticism to five. Smith, named of her team's road loss against preseason Conference Player Montana Saturday night, but f the Year, has lived up the the trend is disturbing to say hype of the preseason by the least. "There's no embarrassment "rad;ng the team in rebounds and points in losing to this team in this scored. Her season averages buildmg" she said. A 10.4 points and 7.1 rebounds How the Utes perform on have kept hi r name atop many the road could have signifipostseason award watch lists, cant implications as the sea.and her piay has contributed son comes to a close in March. V , up-an- 11-- 4 bat-lle- d 8-- 6-- 0, I , I ) ( I s x 'i ..) 1 I r . "X UTAH e, (12-3- ) !XV ; words (9-3- ) Jrnt.a-- 12. 20;4 pm PST as veoas, Ncv. Shona Thorburn completed its schedule, Utah's road schedule doesn't get any ard the Utes re unbeaten at home, but are just easier as the Utes travel to Laramie to open the confer- ence season against Wyoming SKIING (NA) UTAH INVITATIONAL Ca Pa-- it UTAH ki (10-4- WYCV A3 2. 2X4 City Tt Utah 4-- 4 on the this coming Thursday, con- tinuing on to Fort Collins to face the highly touted Colo- - WOMEN'S HOOPS UTAH Jfl'iuary of Forrest Gump rang true this year. You really never know what you're gonna get. In the case of myself and millions of Red Sox fans across the nation, what we got was the best roster in the American League, except with Rain Man as our man- Having MEN'S HOOPS ed ager Grady little. Oh, how the immortal V - s at Awards Column Ever. Our first honoree of the evening. I must say, is ail too fitting. He made headlines and newsreels one fateful day in Fenway, tumbling to the ground so gracefully, it would make Nancy Kerrigan proud. It's none other than Box of Chocolates Award double-double- : celebrate the notorious, the scandalous, the dubious. A wiser man than myself once said, "Awards are like hemorrhoids. In the end, every asshole gets one." With that in mind. The Daily Utah Chronicle is proud to present the second annual Doobie Awards, which will henceforth be known as the Best goes to former Red Sox man- eolle-fiat- largely to the Utes' healthy 10-- 4 record. Without question, the Utes end-of-ye- ar hype. While Anthony is averaging 1S.4 points a game, Milicic has played a total of 35 minutes. I know it's early but 35 minutes? I just hope Dumars has his resume up to date he just might need it This next one hits a little bit close to home for many of us. The life's Just like a a ihroc-pointer- If there's anything more than a BCS meaningless trophy, it's Championship the annual barrage of awards, honors and top-1- 0 lists that takes hold of us all at the end of each calendar year. We're a society starved for superlatives we need them, we crave them, we hunger for them. And when we can't get enough, we create more of them and throw them into our never-endin- g lexicon of bests, worsts and most valuables. In fact, according to my sources, a new awards show is created in this country every 5.8 seconds. So am I critiquing the system? Of course not merely using it as a cheap way to promote my own annuals. But instead of honoring the great achievements of the past 12 months, I instead bull-rush- 4 double-doubl- Chronicle Sports Editor Don Zimmer, winner of the Preparation H Spokesman of the Year Award. By truly making an ass out of himself (wink, wink) as he Pedro Martinez on national TV, Zimmer more than earned his endorsement check from the aforementioned hemorrhoid cream and looked like a shriveled, hemorrhoid ridden pair of buttocks doing it For our next award, look no further than Motown to find the saddest couple of suckers you're likely to find. The Sam Bowie Award goes to none other than Detroit Pistons GM Joe Dumars and his pet prefect, teenage "phenom" Darko Milicic It makes you wonder if teams ever learn from the mistakes of others. Dumars and the Pistons brass pulled the hood over their eyes this summer, picking Milicic (instead of Carmelo Anthony) based on little more than rumor and (10-4- 4-- J -Chris Bellamy seven-hun-dredt- meets. On Saturday, the Utes had an opportunity to avenge that loss and knock off the No, team in the country on its home turf. Evidently, the combination of upset and revenge provided ample motivation for the Red Rocks, as they toppled X Li lead. (4-- 2Xi 7pn jany 3 La'aie, wyo. 15. ) roai rado State Rams just two days later. ager. Given Little's uncanny ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, I wonder SEE GYMNASTICS BELLAMY HEN'S HOOPS KEERASKA at (1-- 0) UTAH (1-- 0 Jan u3ry 16. 20C4 7pm tP Hu'itsT.an Center WYOMING .t (7-6- UTAH ) (12-3- ) -- f. tC04 2?m Huntsman Center ye ., S FACE 9 |
