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04/20/2012
UCLA, Utah and Stanford make it a Pac-12 sweep.
04/11/2012
Utes qualify for record-setting 37th-straight nationals.
04/07/2012
Utes hit all 24 routines to beat Nebraska, four others.
Coaching Synopsis
Year at Utah: 3rd/28th
2010-present: Co-Head Coach
1997-2009: Associate Head Coach
1985-96: Assistant Coach
Education
Utah, 1985
Bachelor's Degree
(Public Relations)
Highlights
NCAA Team Championships: 6
All-Americans: 116
NCAA Assistant Coach of the Year: 2005
Region Assistant Coach of the Year: 2005, 2007
Region Head Coach of the Year: 2011
Personal
Hometown: Cedar Falls, Iowa
Birthdate: June 6, 1962
Family
Married: Greg
Children: Montana, Dakota
Now in her third year as Utah's co-head coach, Megan Marsden spent the previous 25 years grooming for the job. A former NCAA champion for the Utes, she would serve 12 years as an assistant coach and 13 years as an associate head coach before accepting joint leadership with husband Greg Marsden in 2010.
In her first two seasons as co-director, Utah has posted a 35-20 record (19-6 in the regular season) and advanced to the NCAA Super Six both years.
Marsden has played a key role in all 10 of Utah's national championships--first as a gymnast (1981-84) and then as a coach (1985, '86, '90, '92, '94, '95). She has participated in 31 of Utah's 36 all-time national championship appearances, including all 30 NCAA-sponsored championships.
During her tenure, the Utes have placed in the nation's top three 21 times, with 10 gold, seven silver and four bronze team trophies. Utah's 17 Super Six appearances in the 19-year history of team finals is tied for the most in the nation. Utah is the only team to make the Super Six every year since 2000.
Marsden has coached the Utah balance beam team her entire career, as well as assisting with the floor exercise routines. She has mentored Utah gymnasts to 116 All-America awards and seven individual event championships on the beam and floor combined.
Utah is the only program in the nation that can claim two back-to-back beam champions: Missy Marlowe in 1991-92 and Summer Reid in 1996-97. Marsden's other beam titlists to date are Theresa Kulikowski in 1999 and 2001, and Ashley Postell in 2007. Marlowe won the NCAA floor title in 1992. Marsden has had three gymnasts (Kulikowski, Postell and Shannon Bowles) earn first-team All-America honors on the beam all four years of their career.
She has coached her "beamers" to 58 All-America awards, including citations for all six members of her 2002 beam team (four qualified for individual finals).
Marsden also has assisted in 55 All-America performances on the floor exercise, among them NCAA champions Lisa Mitzel (1985) and Marlowe (1990), and NCAA runners-up Kulikowski (1999) and Denise Jones (2000). Winning an NCAA bronze medal on floor during Marsden's coaching tenure were Bowles (2002), Melissa Vituj (2004) and Postell (2007). As the co-head coach, she also shares credit for three additional All-America citations.
Along with her coaching responsibilities, Marsden plays a vital role in Utah's recruiting efforts and manages the team's strength and conditioning and community service programs.
During her undergraduate career as Megan McCunniff, she led Utah to four straight national titles from 1981-84 and was a three-time individual champion, winning the NCAA all-around title in 1983 and 1984, and the 1984 vault crown. She finished her career as a 12-time first-team All-American and the school record-holder on the vault, beam and floor. Her senior year, she won the Broderick Award, recognizing her as the country's top collegiate woman gymnast.
She joined Utah's coaching staff immediately after concluding her competitive career, serving as the program's assistant coach from 1985-96, becoming the associate head coach in 1997 and the co-head coach in 2010.
In 2005, Marsden was voted the co-National Assistant Coach of the Year by her peers. In 2011, she was named the NCAA North Central Region Head Coach of the Year and she was the regional assistant coach of the year in 2005 and 2007.
In 1992, she and husband Greg were co-recipients of the prestigious Utah Young Alumni Association "Par Excellence Award." In 1996, Marsden became the first Ute gymnast inducted into the Crimson Club Hall of Fame, and in 2003, she was inducted into the Utah Hall of Fame.
Her gymnastics background landed her an acting part in the 1985 movie "American Anthem," in which she played gymnast Jo Ellen Carter. That same year, she was one of 10 former gymnasts chosen by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to participate in a study on motion sickness.
The Cedar Falls, Iowa, native graduated from Utah in 1985 with a bachelor's degree in public relations. She and husband Greg have two sons, Montana and Dakota.
Megan Marsden's Head Coaching Mark Year Reg. Season Record Overall Record Regionals Nationals 2010 11-3 19-10 2nd 6th 2011 8-3 16-10 2nd 5th Totals 19-6 35-20
