Red Rocks to focus on selves, not BYU

by: Ryan McDonald on January 27, 2012

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Chris Reeves | The Daily Utah Chronicle

Even as they prepare for the annual matchup against BYU tonight, the No. 3 Red Rocks are still preaching the party line: They’re only worried about themselves.

The team’s motto this season is, “How good of a Utah team can you possibly be?” With that thought in mind, the squad isn’t concerned with the performance of the school down south.

“We don’t like to compare,” said senior Cortni Beers. “We just like to go out and try to do our best.”

Whether or not Beers would consider her team’s performance so far this season its best, it’s been solid nonetheless. In addition to holding the No. 3 spot in the country overall, the Red Rocks (1-1) hold the top average score on both balance beam (49.138) and floor exercises (49.313).

A large portion of the team’s success to date can be pointed to freshmen Georgia Dabritz and Kailah Delaney. Content with simply contributing in any way they could at the beginning of the season, the youngsters have become crucial components of the Utah lineup. Dabritz leads the country on floor exercises with a 9.938 average, while Delaney is sixth in the nation on vault with a 9.913 average score.

“I think about that [her important role] sometimes but I try not to let it get to me,” Dabritz said. “I try not to focus on it, but it pops into my head occasionally.”

A powerful gymnast standing at 5 feet 5 inches, Delaney, Utah’s tallest gymnast, still has a hard time believing she’s had so much success on vault.

“I’ve always loved vault but I never thought I’d be so successful on it,” she said. “It’s an exciting event to do. I love it.”

In addition to Dabritz and Delaney, fellow Red Rocks freshmen Kassandra Lopez, Becky Tutka and Tory Wilson are expected to compete against the Cougars (1-1), who are coming off a win against Southern Utah last Friday. High scores came from multiple sources against the Thunderbirds, as sophomore Raquel Willman scored a career-high 39.1 in the all-around and fellow sophomore Megan Bain put up 9.9 on both vault and beam. Senior and team captain Natalie Pickard tied her career high on bars with a 9.85.

Though the history between the Red Rocks and Cougars has been one-sided, with Utah holding an 87-2 advantage, Beers said that regardless of opponent, each meet gives the team a chance to show improvement on the little things, such as handstands and sticking landings.

Although the focus is definitely on improving themselves, senior Kyndal Robarts readily said that there is a special feeling in the air when the two schools do battle.

“It’s always a big deal,” she said. “It’s fun to have a rivalry, so we definitely get into it.”
Then the party line of concentrating on the team came back.

“I think we just get into the team spirit of having the rivalry with BYU,” Robarts said. “We ultimately try to have good meets against everybody, regardless of who it is.”

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Posted by Ryan McDonald on Jan 27 2012. Filed under Gymnastics, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.