SALT LAKE CITY -- Immediately after Utah's Kristen Kenoyer and Missy Marlowe had scored spectacular 9.8s on the floor exercise at last Monday's Spartan Jeep-Eagle Showdown, sophomore Shelly Schaerrer took center stage for her routine.

A few moments later, after a series of exciting flips and difficult combinations, the partisan Utah crowd roared its approval. When the judges announced a 9.9, it exploded. The score was the first 9.9 awarded to a Lady Utes gymnast in the program's illustrious 15-year existence.

High scores have been common of late as Utah has once again returned to the top of women's gymnastics. The team is ranked No. 1 and entered the Showdown fresh off a strong, 193.75-192.10, victory against Top 5-ranked Alabama.

In the Showdown, the Lady Utes scored their third-consecutive 193-plus score, with a 193.30. Utah easily out-distanced Brigham Young (188.15), Penn State (185.95) and Iowa State (181.75).

"I think this team has a definite competitive personality," Utah coach Greg Marsden said. "They're much more aggressive and they really enjoy the competition. The (team) workouts are really work to them, so they appreciate competing.

"The last two or three years, I think, they've been intimidated by the competition, but this year I just stand back and get out of the way."

Although the record book hasn't exactly shown a lack of success for the Utah program in recent years, the team believes it had dropped according to its own standards. In 1987 and 1988, the team was second at NCAAs while the 1989 the Lady Utes were fifth.

Utah had won the national championship six-consecutive years from 1981-86. In its history the team has never finished out of the Top 10.

"Last year's team was very capable of winning (the national championship)," Marsden said. "Yet we picked NCAAs to have our worst meet of the season. But, if you were to tell me we would finish fifth with a very mediocre performance (I would've been pleased)."

This season, however, has seen one record fall after another. The score against Alabama was the team's highest ever. Also at that meet, Marlowe, a 1988 Olympian, tallied a 39.05 in the all-around -- another record. Her 9.8 on the floor in the Showdown gave her a 39 for the meet.

"They're such a strong team," Penn State coach Judi Avener said. "I was really impressed by the difficulty of their routines."

In Schaerrer's case, the floor gave her a chance to redeem herself after an earlier fall off the balance beam. Despite the fall, she had garnered a 9.2 in the event. Heading into the event, both Marsden and Schaerrer had noticed the judges were scoring the floor exercise and allowing some room for error. So they decided to add an extra degree of difficulty on the final pass of her routine. It worked.

"Shelly hit everything, she (even) nailed her middle double. I knew on that last pass she was really gassed, but it is very impressive to the judges to do that particular element," Marsden said.

"I was really relieved when it was all over," Schaerrer added. "Greg gave me a decision going into the last pass to do the element or not. I felt good, so I decided to do it."

Schaerrer's score enabled the Lady Utes to collect yet another school record of 48.95 on the floor. Had Kris Takahashi not scored a 9.1 and Jessica Smith stepped out of bounds (she scored 9.6 anyway) the team would have scored over 49.

Marlowe said the floor is an easy event to finish with because it allows for creativity and expressiveness. But the Lady Utes were strong on every event at the Showdown. Throughout the evening, the Utah gymnasts made it all look simple. In each event, Utah scores surpassed the all-time highs of the other three teams.

"They're fun to watch," Lady Lion all-arounder Allison Barber said.

Despite the accomplishments, the team continues to strive for excellence with very high standards.

"We came into the meet wanting to go 24-for-24 on our routines and obviously we had some trouble on the beam," Schaerrer said. "Every week there is room for improvement. We aren't scoring 10s."