The Red Rocks had their last home meet of the season last night against #2-ranked Florida. It's not a stretch to suggest that 'rivalry' well characterizes what these two teams bring to their competitions vs one another--Utah with many national championships to its credit and Florida with many great teams over the past few years but no banners hanging in the rafters. Utah has struggled a bit this season and Florida has been on a tear, recently setting a national record with a seemingly unheard of team score well above 198. Enter the Jon M Huntsman Center, with 14,930 rabid gymnastics fans who couldn't wait to root against Florida at the same time they are savvy enough to look forward to admiring the obvious talent of this foe. The score was close after one rotation, with Utah behind. Georgia Dabritz competed last on bars during Utah's second rotation and when her perfect score of 10 was flashed, Florida might as well have packed their bags and spared themselves the experience of watching and hearing the crowd feed off the Red Rocks feed off the crowd, etc., until the final tally of a 198.125 - 197.825 Utah victory. That 198.125 score for Utah represents an average individual score of just better than 9.9 for all 20 routines counted toward the team total. Absolutely remarkable, and I dare say the fans were appreciative! It's difficult to stay focused on the task at hand with all of that going on around me, but I persisted and here am posting some of my favorite shots from last night. (Click on images for larger versions.) Comments welcome!
Wauw, nice pictures, always a pleasure to see pictures made by You! Truly an inspiration.
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