The Georgia gymnastics team hopes to continue its momentum against Utah on Friday after posting its highest score in two years last Saturday meet in its win over LSU.

“It’s definitely a good feeling,” said freshman Sarah Persinger. “We wanted to go in and really have ‘a pedal to the medal’ intention and compete with purpose and block out all distractions. We went in and did exactly that, and I feel like we earned it.”

Following a victory over LSU, the Gym Dogs head out to Utah to take on the No. 1 ranked Utes of Utah. ALLISON LOVE/Staff

Even though they had their highest score of the season so far, there are still several areas where the Gym Dogs hope to improve.

“There’s always room for improvement,” Persinger said. “We want to fix little things here and there in practice and go out on Friday and translate that into competition.”

After all of that is said and done, the Gym Dogs still have a tough road ahead of them as they gear up to face the No. 1 team in the nation.

“Utah’s a tough place on everybody,” Georgia head coach Jay Clark said. “I don’t know that they’ve lost but a handful of times in [the Huntsman Center] over the last 20 years.”

“We’ve competed with them very well the last few times we’ve been out there, and the meets are always close,” Clark continued. “It’s always an electric atmosphere, and it’s an atmosphere that’s similar to ours.”

But instead of 10,000 people cheering on the Gym Dogs, they’ll have 15,000 fans cheering against them.

“From my experience in Alabama, with the crowd there and the energy, I really used it to think about how I wanted to prove to their fans how good my team is,” Persinger said. “I just want to go into Utah with that same mindset and use the crowd’s energy to my advantage.”

Although the expectations are high, the Gym Dogs aren’t going to shy away from putting up a good fight against the Utes.

“It’ll definitely be a loud crowd, a boisterous crowd,” Clark said. “But we’re going to embrace it, and hopefully it’s a sellout and both teams compete well.”

In terms of being ranked No. 4, Clark said he doesn’t look at rankings as the determining factor on which school has the better team.

“I’ve told our team that look just because we’ve moved up, No. 4 doesn’t define us any more than No. 9 did when we started the season,” Clark said. “And I think [Utah head coach] Greg [Marsden] probably feel the same way, but certainly it’s always exciting when your team’s No. 1. That’s a feather in your cap even if you just get to wear it for a few weeks. It doesn’t really factor into the way we go about our business or how we’re preparing.”

The Gym Dogs said they are just going to focus on their own gymnastics and let the meet run its course.

“We just need to focus on what this team can do,” Persinger said. “They may be No. 1, but it’s just a number, and it’s just a ranking, so we’re going to go out there and do what we’re capable of doing.”

“We know Utah is a great team,” Clark said. “We think we have a pretty good team [as well], and if we do our job, we’re going to compete well and maybe we can come out on top.”