The focus for the University of Denver gymnastics team at nationals tonight will be on smiles.
If everybody is smiling after their events at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City, the Pioneers should become the most successful team in school history.
“That’s what it’s all about, because when we’re having fun, we’re performing well,” DU coach Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart said.
This is the Pioneers’ second appearance at the 12-team event. They finished 12th in 2001, the same spot where they were seeded.
This year’s team also is seeded 12th, but Kutcher- Rinehart said this squad is the best she has had in nine years at DU.
“This group probably has more skill level and depth than we’ve ever had,” Kutcher-Rinehart said. “We were very clear with this team from Day One that expectations need to be higher. We weren’t just coaching to say, ‘Hit a routine.’ We were coaching to say, ‘How are we going to stick that dismount on that hit routine, and how are we going to point the toes on that hit routine?’
“We raised the level of expectation, and the athletes have been able to respond.”
The meet is divide into six teams competing in two sessions. Denver will compete in the evening session at 7 p.m. The top three teams from each session advance to Friday’s Super Six. The teams that don’t make the cut will be ranked seventh through 12th based on their first-round score.
“Our goal from the beginning of the year is top 10, and I think a lot of people are expecting us to be 12th, because we’re coming in last,” DU senior Heather Huffaker said. “We just want to prove we belong, and we know we do.”
Huffaker leads a squad that could produce up to four individual All-Americans. Huffaker is a candidate on the floor exercise and vault; sophomore Jessica Lopez has the potential in balance beam, floor and uneven bars; junior Sasha Sullivan and senior Casey Dobyns could do it on floor and vault, respectively.
All-Americans will be named based on today’s competition. Places first through fourth, plus ties, in each event and the all-around in each session dictate first-team All-Americans.
For the Pioneers to make it to Friday’s round, they’ll have to dramatically improve on their regional score of 195.825. That was good enough to finish second in the six-team North Central Regional at Magness Arena, but well behind regional champion Georgia (197.275).
“We hit 24 of 24 (events) at regionals, but we wouldn’t be in the top six at nationals with what we did at regionals, but we didn’t do the best we could do,” Huffaker said. “It’s definitely going to take every single person being on – just a really good night – to make Super Six.”
Kutcher-Rinehart doesn’t want her team to think about the Super Six. Given their combined 3.69 grade-point average and late-season rally to qualify for nationals, she said a school-record top-10 result would feel like a national championship.
Mike Chambers can be reached at 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com.
