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This is an NCAA regional competition with the goal of advancing to the NCAA Championships, not a meet focused on the Utah-UCLA rivalry. Repeat until you believe it. It might take a while to do so.

With UCLA being the only team to beat the Utes this year, doing so in the regular season and at the Pac-12 Championships, a lot of hype has been put on their third meeting in Saturday's regional championships in the Huntsman Center. The fifth-ranked Utes are doing their best to ignore such commentary.

"That is for the media to do that," Utah coach Megan Marsden said. "That's not our focus."

The Utes, despite a rivalry with UCLA that is getting stronger, say they aren't after the Bruins to exact revenge Saturday; they merely want to advance to the NCAA Championships April 15-16 in Fort Worth, Texas. The Utes have qualified for all 34 NCAA Championships to date and only need to place in the top two on Saturday, not win, to advance again.

The danger that Marsden has drilled into her team is the temptation to make the meet about the Bruins and see her team lose its focus.

"The bigger issue is just getting the job done," she said. "I don't want them to focus on the past couple of losses and not get the gist of what is happening now. It's the postseason and there are six teams on the floor. We need to push that mentality."

The reality is the Utes should have a bit of a cushion to qualify since they've beaten Washington and Southern Utah already and boast a much higher ranking. The Utes also get the benefit of starting on a bye then going to the uneven bars, one of their best events. Utah State will start on vault, Illinois starts on bars, Southern Utah starts on a bye then floor, Washington starts on the floor and UCLA gets the dreaded rotation of opening on the beam.

It was the Utes' opening rotation of starting on the beam that did them in at the Pac-12 championship as they suffered two falls — opening the door for UCLA to win.

While the second-place finish was a little disheartening after such a good regular season, the Utes say they have regrouped in the past two weeks.

"We've had a good mentality," senior Breanna Hughes said. "We got back in the gym, focusing on the areas we need to improve in. We know a quarter of a tenth can make a big difference and we have been looking for ways to cut those."

The Utes also get a little mental boost with the return of beam anchor Maddy Stover, whose shoulder has healed enough for her to compete Saturday. She hopes to bring a steadying force to the beam lineup as well as the team overall.

"We are determined and passionate about this sport," she said. "Our biggest meets are yet to come and we want to be ready for them." —

NCAA Gymnastics Regional

P Saturday, 6 p.m., at the Huntsman Center

• No. 5 Utah, No. 8 UCLA, No. 17 Washington, No. 23 Southern Utah, Illinois, Utah State