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Show 6 SPORTS Tuesday April 8, 2014 UPCOMING SPORTS EVENTS TODAY: Softball Utah @Weber St. Wyoming Cowboy Classic All Day Scottsdale, Ariz. THURSDAY: Softball Utah @ Arizona St. 7 p.m. Tempe, Ariz. FRIDAY: Track Utah Spring Classic All Day McCarthey Family Track & Field Men's Tennis Utah vs. UCLA 1:30 p.m. Eccles Tennis Center NCAA SEMIFINAL SESSIONS GYMNASTICS SESSION ONE No. 3 LSU No. 6 Georgia No. 7 Michigan No. 10 Stanford No. 11 Illinois SESSION TWO No. 1 Florida No. 4 Alabama No. 5 Utah No. 8 UCLA No. 9 Nebraska No. 15 Penn St. Red Rocks ready for nationals ASST. SPORTS EDITOR Men's Golf Oklahoma GYMNASTICS Griffin Adams 2 & 4:30 p.m. Ogden No. 2 www.dailyutahchronicle.com After a much-deserved weekend of celebration following their victory at regionals, the Red Rocks found out Monday morning which semifinal session they will compete in at nationals on April 18 and which teams will join them. No. 5 Utah will perform in the evening session of the semifinals and will go up against No. 1 Florida, No. 4 Alabama, No. 8 UCLA, No. 9 Nebraska and No. 15 Penn State. The afternoon session will feature No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 3 LSU, No. 6 Georgia, No. 7 Michigan, No. io Stanford and No. ii Illinois. "Looking at both sessions, I think they're pretty, in my opinion, relatively equal," said co-head coach Megan Marsden. "Part of that is because the amount of parity that is out there these days. It used to be more obvious which session you'd want to be in or not be in, and, to me, I think they both have lots of good teams." In addition to finding out what session they are competing in and who they'll be with, the Red Rocks also found out their rotation for the meet. It will be nearly identical to the one they got at regionals, as they will start on bars, then head to beam before having a bye halfway through. After the bye, Utah will compete in the leg events — floor and vault — before ending the meet on the sideline with a bye. The Red Rocks had a bye to start off last weekend's regional meet before they competed on bars, where they recorded their third-lowest score of the season on the event. With no bye in between pre-meet warmups and the first rotation, Utah is looking to get off to a better start at nationals. "I think it definitely won't hurt us," said junior all-arounder Tory Wilson. "I don't know if our slow start [at regionals] was because of the bye or because of the nerves COLUMN CHRIS AYERS/The Daily Utah Chronicle Tory Wilson competes on bars at the Huntsman Center during a meet against Washington on Feb. 28. or what situation caused that, but I think that it'll be beneficial for us because we know we can do well with that rotation." The Red Rocks will be looking for redemption in this year's semifinal meet. A year ago, they failed to advance to the finals — the Super Six — for the first time since 1999. In order to advance to the Super Six, a team has to finish in the top three of its session. After returning nearly everyone from last year's squad, Utah has been eager to get back. "[Getting to the Super Six] was determined back in September, when the girls came back, end of August," Marsden said. "When we were on a team retreat, that was determined by the returning girls that they did not want to be watching ... They didn't like sitting in the stands, and they didn't feel like they were that far off of what they were witnessing on Super Six night." In an effort to get back to the Super Six, gymnasts have been encouraging coaches to be harder than ever on them throughout the season. Additionally, gymnasts have wanted coaches to talk to See GYMNASTICS page 8 SOFTBALL Whittingham's Pitcher depth leads to success failures could spell his end Dominic Garcia STAFF WRITER Sports Editor e pressure is on for Utah head football coach Kyle Whittingham, and it's all Larry Krystkowiak's fault. The latter came into his post in 2011, when the men's basketball program was in complete shambles. Former Runnin' Utes head man Jim Boylen had lost control of the team, and a bunch of players left when Krystkowiak showed up. The whole blow-up came at a pretty bad time, as Utah was just about to enter the Pac-12. Fast forward just three years, however, and the Runnin' Utes are in pretty dang great shape. They've gone from six wins their first season under Larry K to 21 in the campaign that just concluded. More importantly, the future looks even brighter than it did entering this season, as next year will bring the arrival of highly-touted recruits Kyle Kuzma, Brekkott Chapman and Isaiah Wright. Because of the success he has had in such a short amount of time Th at Utah, Krystkowiak's name has floated around in recent weeks as a potential replacement at some other programs around the country. Most notably, he was being considered for the Cal job last week when Mike Montgomery announced his retirement. Smartly, Utah athletic director Chris Hill will be locking Krystkowiak up for the next five years with a contract extension. Nothing has been finalized yet, but Krystkowiak has indicated both in a statement and on Twitter in the past few days that plans are in place to sign the extension. I don't see why it won't happen sometime this week. Contrast this with how Whittingham's head coaching career has gone. He became top dog during this U's finest era of athletic achievement, replacing the great Urban Meyer just prior to the 2005 Fiesta Bowl. It was the first time a non-BCS school had busted the system. The Utes won that game and then beat Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl for their second BCS victory. Since then, however, it's been a plummet to mediocrity, and some might use a stronger word than See MCDONALD page 8 In sports, having depth on a roster has proven time and time again crucial to a team's success. For Utah, having depth on the mound is an advantage head coach Amy Hogue can use. The Utes have three different pitchers in its arsenal — Kayce Nieto, Sammy Cordova and Mariah Ramirez. Since each pitcher has their own specialties, determining who will pitch on a certain day depends on the opponent Utah faces. "I think our entire pitching staff will evaluate every weekend, every series, every doubleheader," Hogue said. "Teams have certain hitters with certain weaknesses, and we will match them up as best we can with the pitching we have, which involves all three of our pitchers." Nieto has been the go-to starter all season long, registering more than twice the amount of starts as any other pitcher on the staff. At the beginning of the season, it was obvious that Nieto would be the starter because her consistency. In 92 innings thrown this year, she has recorded 35 strikeouts and only one wild pitch. Despite the consistency, Cordova has been slowly making her way into the starting conversation with her performances. With improvement in nearly every game, Hogue has gained the confidence to reward Cordova with more and more starts. The decision to start her paid off as Cordova turned in one of the best pitching performances of the season in Utah's last series against Oregon State. ERIN BURNS/The Daily Utah Chronicle Kayce Nieto winds up to pitch during the Utes' game against Ole Miss on March 3. In the first game against the Beavers, Cordova pitched all seven innings, only allowing two runs and recording four strikeouts. In the 20 appearances she has made in the sea- son, Cordova's ERA average of 3.35 is the lowest of all three of the pitchers. "She came in, in the fall, and was See SOFTBALL page 8 |