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04/19/2013
Damianova, Dabritz and Wilson qualify for event finals.
04/12/2013
Utes are making record 38th-straight appearance at nationals.
03/23/2013
Utes lose lead, meet, on final event
03/16/2013
Georgia Dabritz scores 10.0 on bars
03/09/2013
Tory Wilson stays undefeated on vault
Coaching Synopsis
Year at Utah: 38th
Utah Record: 974-190-6
Career Record: same
Education
Central Arkansas, 1972
Bachelor's Degree
(Physical Education)
Arkansas State, 1973
Master's Degree
(Physical Education)
Highlights
National Championship Appearances: 37
NCAA Championships Appearances: 31
National Championships: 10
NCAA Championships: 9
Top-2 National Finishes: 18
Super Six Appearances: 18 (of 20)
NCAA Event Champions: 24
All-Americans: 323
Coach of the Year Honors: 7
Personal
Hometown: Clarksville, Ark.
Birthdate: Nov. 8, 1950
Family
Married: Megan
Children: Montana, Dakota
Utah's Greg Marsden, the most successful coach in college gymnastics history, begins his 38th season at Utah, where his teams routinely perform before home crowds exceeding 14,000. The fans turn out in droves to see a program that has won a record 10 national championships (nine NCAA) and also holds the record for most national championship appearances (37), most NCAA Championship appearances (31) and most Super Six appearances (18).
No gymnastics coach can touch Marsden's win tally--he enters the 2013 season with a 974-190-6 record, all at Utah--and he has produced more All-Americans (324) than any other gymnastics program. Utah is the only school to qualify for the last 37 national championships and for all 31 NCAA Championships to date.
Under Marsden, the Utes have accumulated the most top-five (28), top-three (22) and top-two (18) national finishes in the country. Utah is the only school to qualify for the Super Six every year since 2000 and has qualified into the Super Six 18 times in the 20-year history of the team finals.
Utah's only head coach for his first 35 seasons, he has shared the title with his wife and longtime assistant/associate coach Megan Marsden since 2010.
In Utah's first year as a member of the powerful Pac-12 Conference in 2011-12, the gymnasts earned the school's best finish by placing second at the Pac-12 Gymnastics Championship. They also captured Utah's first Pac-12 individual titles (Corrie Lothrop, all-around, and Georgia Dabritz, bars).
Just as impressive as his program's success on the floor is its success in the stands. An innovative and passionate promoter of his sport, Marsden has grown Utah gymnastics into one of the best attended women's sports of all time. The four-year attendance average dating back to 2009 exceeds 14,000 a meet and the Utes have averaged over 11,000 fans a meet since 1992 and 10,000-plus since 1984! Utah has won 28 national gymnastics attendance titles and two all-sports women's attendance titles.
As the only NCAA sport other than basketball ever to win the women's season attendance title, Utah gymnastics led the nation in women's home attendance average in both 2010 (14,213) and 2011 (13,503). Last year's team finished second in the overall standings to Tennessee women's basketball, even while setting the NCAA gymnastics attendance record by drawing 14,352 fans a home meet.
Utah also holds gymnastics records for the largest crowd to watch a meet (15,558), NCAA Regional attendance (8,469) and NCAA Championships attendance (36,655, three-day total).
Little wonder fans flock to Utah's meets. The Ute gymnastics program set an NCAA record across all sports (men and women) by going 24 years from 1979-2002 without losing a regular season home meet. Utah's all-time home record of 412-26 has come primarily against the top teams in the land.
Utah's first national title was the 1981 AIAW Championship. A year later, when the NCAA began sponsoring women's sports, the Utes kept winning--capturing five NCAA championships in a row before placing second in 1987. Utah achieved similar success in the 1990s, winning NCAA Championships in 1990, '92, '94 and '95. The new millennium has been silver plated: Utah finished second in the nation in 2000, 2006, 2007 and 2008 and is the only school to qualify for the Super Six all 13 years.
Along with Utah's 324 All-America awards, Marsden's gymnasts have won 24 individual event championships while claiming NCAA titles on every apparatus and in the all-around.
Former Ute Missy Marlowe was the first gymnast to win the coveted Honda Broderick Cup, which recognizes the nation's top female collegiate athlete. Marlowe won the honor in 1992 after winning a record four NCAA individual championships in a single year.
His teams also perform well in the classroom. Marsden has coached eight CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, among them first-team selections Theresa Kulikowski (2002 and 2003), Shannon Bowles (2002), Kristina Baskett (2009) and Daria Bijak (2010). Kulikowski was the 2003 Academic All-American of the Year for all NCAA sports (the only gymnast ever to win the top academic award in college sports). Marsden has also coached four second-team Academic All-Americans in Kristen Kenoyer (1993), Molly Northrop (1998) and Baskett (2008), as well as one third-team selection (Melissa Vituj in 2004).
His many coaching honors include a record seven National Coach of the Year citations. In 2005, he was voted the NCAA North Central Region Coach of the Year. He was the 1992 TV Guide/Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce Sportsman of the Year and the 1992 MS Sports Person of the Year. In 1986, he won the Dale Rex Award, which recognizes annually "The Utahn Contributing the Most to Athletics."
Marsden served five years on the NCAA gymnastics committee, was president of the college gymnastics coaching association for two years, and was the NCAA Division I representative for the NACGC/W.
He also has international coaching experience and was the 1987 United States National Women's Program Administrator and U.S.A. National Women's Team coach. As the National Team coach, Marsden led the U.S. to a gold medal at the 1987 Pan American Games. The World Championships team he coached finished sixth.
He was a floor manager at the 1984 Summer Olympics and the transportation coordinator at the 1979 World Championships. He brought the 1979 USGF World Championship Trials, the 1980 and '82 USGF Championships of the USA, and the 1993 World University Games Trials to Salt Lake City. In 1988, he was on the organizing committee for the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials, also held in Salt Lake City.
Marsden, a native of Clarksville, Ark., was born Nov. 8, 1950. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in physical education from Central Arkansas (1972) and Arkansas State (1973), respectively. He is married to the former Megan McCunniff, a two-time NCAA all-around champion during her Utah gymnastics career. Megan has coached alongside him for the past 28 years and is in her fourth year as the co-head coach. They have two sons, Montana and Dakota.
Year Record Pac-12 Regionals Nationals 1976 5-3 2nd 10th 1977 10-2-1 2nd 9th 1978 11-5 2nd 6th 1979 14-5 1st 4th 1980 28-1 1st 2nd 1981 26-2 1st 1st 1982 11-2 2nd 1st 1983 20-2 2nd 1st 1984 17-2 1st 1st 1985 13-1 1st 1st 1986 13-1 1st 1st 1987 14-2 2nd 2nd 1988 16-3 1st 2nd 1989 15-2 1st 5th 1990 18-1 1st 1st 1991 13-1 1st 2nd 1992 16-1 1st 1st 1993 17-0 1st 3rd 1994 13-1 1st 1st 1995 16-1 1st 1st 1996 10-1 1st 3rd (tie) 1997 11-1 1st 7th 1998 7-3 1st 4th 1999 12-1 2nd 7th 2000 10-4 1st 2nd 2001 13-1-1 1st 5th (tie) 2002 9-2 1st 4th 2003 7-5 1st 6th 2004 13-1 1st 6th 2005 12-2 1st 3rd 2006 11-2 2nd 2nd 2007 13-3 1st 2nd 2008 12-1 1st 2nd 2009 12-1 1st 3rd 2010 11-3 2nd 6th 2011 8-3 2nd 5th 2012 7-3 2nd 1st 5th Total 491-77-2 (974-190-6 with postseason)
