University of Utah gymnasts Cammy Hall, left, and Hunter Dula congratulate Cristal Isa after her beam routine in Salt Lake City on Friday, March 6, 2020. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
The Red Rocks hope to have their lineups all but finalized Friday against Utah State
SALT LAKE CITY — It is time to talk about the best laid plans of college gymnastics coaches.
Earlier this year, following No. 4 Utah’s season-opening victory over No. 13 Kentucky, Red Rocks head coach Tom Farden told the Deseret News some of the goals he had for his team during the regular season.
One major objective revolved around lineups, specifically when they would be finalized.
Farden expected there to be movement throughout the first couple months of the season — “We are definitely trying to put the lineups in there that we know we can build upon scores (with),” he said — but by mid-February he hoped to have Utah’s lineups all but solidified.
“I think our goal is that after the Feb. 15 meet that we would have a good idea, a good barometer of where we want to go with the lineups,” Farden told the Deseret News. “And it might take another meet after that. All of our meets are big meets, but as we prepare for March and start ramping up for postseason we want to make sure we are pretty dialed in.”
To steal from Robert Burns’ poem, “To A Mouse,” “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men; Gang aft a-gley, (often go awry)”
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Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
With one final regular season meet remaining, Friday night against Utah State, Utah still doesn’t have its lineups set in stone.
Against Stanford on March 6, Hunter Dula, Kim Tessen and Cristal Isa all found themselves competing on events they hadn’t the week prior. In Dula’s case, she was competing for the first time in a month.
Go back a couple of meets, and Isa was competing on only two events. Now, she is the team’s sole all-arounder. Missy Reinstadtler has anchored the floor lineup the last two weeks, but has only competed on the event four times this season. Throw in Jillian Hoffman, Abby Paulson and Maile O’Keefe, and Utah’s gymnasts have bounced around lineups all year long, well past Farden’s hoped for deadline.
“Yeah, we passed it,” he said.
The movement hasn’t necessarily been a bad thing, which the Red Rocks’ scores and undefeated season will attest to. There is something to be said for weekly competition for spots.
Some of it has also been the result of injury, which no one could have predicted.
And the shuffling of gymnasts has also allowed Utah to test its depth, a luxury the team had to do without in previous campaigns, which could pay off down the line.
Still, with the postseason looming, and in a sport where the ability to build upon scores is paramount, finalizing lineups remains important.
“I would’ve liked to have been locked in on lineups by now,” Farden said. “One can’t predict when something happens like with Sydney” — Soloski injured her quad on vault against Stanford and did not compete on floor as a result — “so that was more out of circumstances, but I would have liked to have had those finalized.”
The good news is that even with Soloksi potentially missing the meet against the Aggies, Farden is confident the Red Rocks can have everything finalized and ready for the Pac-12 Gymnastics Championships — which will be held March 21 at the Maverik Center — by Friday.
“I do think we are happy with three of the four lineups,” he said. “When we get Sydney back in we will adjust some positions, obviously, but I think the potential for all four of them to be locked in by next week is workable.”
Red Rocks on the air
No. 4 Utah (197.475) vs. Utah State (195.915)
Huntsman Center, Salt Lake City
Friday, 7 p.m. MST
Live stream: Pac-12 Plus
Radio: ESPN700
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