SALT LAKE CITY — Utah gymnastics has performed consistently throughout the season, ranking among the nation’s elite teams. Its schedule and training aren’t consistent, though, unless you view them as consistently changing.

“This has been one of the most challenging years to coach in terms of training,” co-head coach Tom Farden said.

The challenge stems from the team having meets on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, as well as tight turnarounds and holidays.

“I’ve been doing the training planning for a long time and this has been one of the hardest years to figure out what days to push the kids and what days to not push the kids, and what days you want to work on parts of the routines — whether it be endurance-based, quality, or full routines.”

The Red Rocks just finished a two-week stand of back-to-back Sunday road meets — UCLA at 6 p.m. MST, followed by Cal at 12 p.m. MST. The meet in Berkeley was Utah’s first morning competition since the 1976 AIAW Championships in its first year as a varsity sport.

“We started training at 6 a.m.,” Farden said of this past Sunday’s meet.

The early start time had some effect on the Red Rocks. Landings weren’t stuck as usual and there were a few wobbles, which allowed them to give up the meet. However, while Utah wasn’t at its best, it wasn’t at its worst.

The team earned a solid road score (197.45) and stayed at No. 4 for the second straight week as the national rankings switched to regional qualifying scores, calculated by taking a team’s six best regular season meet scores — three of which must be on the road — eliminating the high score and averaging the remaining five.

As if the unsteady days and times aren’t enough to throw Utah off, the Red Rocks have another road meet — their next competition in Michigan on Saturday, March 10. Luckily for the team, it has some rest at home with a rare bye week.

“It comes at a good time,” Maddy Stover said.

“Looking at the schedule at the beginning of the year, I thought we had three weekends in a row and I thought ‘Oh goodness. That is going to be rough,’” MaKenna Merrell-Giles, who’s thrilled with Utah’s week of rest, said.

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In its second-straight week on the road, No. 4 Utah gymnastics once again faced competition that went down to the wire. But unlike last week, the Red Rocks came up short as they lost their first Pac-12 meet of the season, 197.50-197.45. It was the second time ever Utah (8-2, 5-1 Pac-12) lost to No. 21 California (7-4, 3-3) — the first came in the semifinals of the 2016 NCAA Championships.

This week is the program’s 11th regular-season bye week in its 43-year existence and first since 2012. The oddity comes thanks to the season’s calendar getting stretched. The season began a little earlier, and nationals start a week later than last year.

The Pac-12 requires each of its gymnastics teams to take part in six conference meets. With the calendar extended, Utah had some wiggle room with more available weeks to compete.

“I have some fringe times that we can choose what to do,” Farden said. “It also depends on the opponents you can attract. We think it’s beneficial to see BYU, Michigan and Georgia as our outside meets right now. This year, with the extra weekend we happened to have, we did the Reno Elevate the Stage meet.”

Utah’s wonky schedule is “beneficial” in many ways. The Elevate the Stage meet allowed the team to compete on podium for the first time in the regular season. Utah’s only previous experience competing on podium has been at the NCAA Championships.

The week of rest also gives the gymnasts time to focus on school, which they’re looking forward to with midterms coming up.

“We’re students first, so having more time to catch up on school and giving our minds and body a decompressed state over the weekend will be nice,” Stover said.

“I have a test this week, so it’s nice to focus on that rather than needing to pack before the test. It’s nice to put more of a focus on (school),” Merrell-Giles added.

The bye week also helps the healing process. Fortunately for Utah, the program hasn’t dealt with any major injuries this season. However, MyKayla Skinner was held out of the all-around for the first time in her career due to a sore ankle last week. Kari Lee also rolled her ankle during her last tumbling pass on floor on Sunday.

“Kari doesn’t have tape on, which is helpful, and MyKayla is running around so that’s a good sign,” Farden said, adding that both will be good to go in the all-around at the next meet.

Possibly most importantly for the Red Rocks is the chance they get to go “back to basics” this week.

“We’re a little more than midway through the season. It’s a good time for us to step back, watch some film, evaluate our past performances, and look at what needs to be improved,” Stover said.

No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 2 UCLA and No. 3 LSU have all scored at least 198 this season. Fourth-ranked Utah’s highest score is 197.70. Reaching the 198-range is a new goal and will be reached if the Red Rocks can focus on the fine details — sticking dismounts, presentation and execution.

“The more sticks, the more presentation, the better the execution — that’s what’s going to win a meet at this point,” Stover said. “We know we’re one of the top teams this year and we’re ready to progress in that direction. That’s why this week is important.”

“It’s definitely been a unique year for planning practices,” Farden said. “I think it will benefit the team. We’ve competed in so many different times and time zones in different places. We’re going to Michigan, that’s a different time zone, too. Our schedule and the way it bounced this year will prepare the kids to be able to turn it on at any time.”

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