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02/04/2013
Wilson is nation's top-ranked vaulter
01/21/2013
Utes move up seven places in rankings
01/07/2013
Meet will be televised nationally on Pac-12 Networks
09/04/2012
Team utilizes weekend get-away to focus on team building.
06/15/2012
Utes make Super Six for record 18th time
Coaching Synopsis
Year at Utah: 4th/29th
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: 128
NCAA Assistant Coach of the Year: 2005
Region Assistant Coach of the Year: 2005, 2007
Region Head Coach of the Year: 2011, 2012
Personal
Hometown: Cedar Falls, Iowa
Birthdate: June 6, 1962
Family
Married: Greg
Children: Montana, Dakota
In her fourth season as Utah's co-head coach, Megan Marsden is in her 29th year overall on the staff. She has impacted the country's premier gymnastics program in more facets than anyone. A former NCAA champion for the Utes, she served 12 years as an assistant coach and 13 years as an associate head coach before accepting joint leadership of the team with husband Greg Marsden in 2010.
In her three years as a head coach, Utah has amassed a 58-29 record (26-9 in the regular season) and advanced to the NCAA Super Six every year. Last year, Utah's first as a member of the Pac-12 Conference, 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).
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). As a competitor or coach, she has participated in 32 of Utah's 37 national championship appearances, including all 31 NCAA-sponsored events.
During her time in Salt Lake City, the Utes have placed in the nation's top three 21 times, with 10 gold, seven silver and four bronze team trophies. Utah's 18 Super Six appearances in the 20-year history of team finals is tied for the most in the nation. Utah is the only school to make the Super Six every year since 2000.
Marsden has coached the Utah balance beam team and assisted with the floor exercise routines her entire career. She has mentored Utah gymnasts to 128 All-America awards, including 114 on beam and floor combined. As the co-head coach, she also shares credit for 14 additional All-America citations. Her gymnasts have won seven individual championships on beam and floor.
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. Her 2001 beam team made history when all six members won All-America honors and four qualified for individual finals.
Marsden also has assisted in 56 All-America performances on the floor exercise, among them NCAA champions Lisa Mitzel (1985) and Marlowe (1992), and NCAA runners-up Shelley Schaerrer and Marlowe (tied in 1990), Kulikowski (1999) and Denise Jones (2000). Winning an NCAA bronze medal on floor under Marsden were Bowles (2002), Melissa Vituj (2004) and Postell (2007).
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 and 2012, 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 2012 7-3 23-9 1st 5th Totals 26-9 58-29
