(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Maile O'Keefe competes on the floor, in PAC-12 gymnastics action between The University of Washington and The University of Utah at Jon M. Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City, on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2021.
Starting the balance beam rotation with a fall is one of the worst situations a collegiate gymnastics team can face. Unless, apparently, the team is the Utah Utes.
On Saturday, Utah overcame the immense pressure of opening with a fall on the 4-inch wide apparatus to soar past Washington 197.475-193.3 in the Huntsman Center.
Often teams can get tight and have a chain reaction of mistakes after a fall early in the lineup but the Utes, who were so strong in pressure situations on the beam last year, responded with a 49.575 on Saturday.
That score was highlighted by a 10.0 from Maile O’Keefe and a 9.95 from Abby Paulson.
The Utes were in a similar station when they opened with a fall on the beam against defending champion Oklahoma earlier in the year.
Utah went on to lose that meet after scoring just 48.975 on the beam. The subpar performance on what they consider is their best event only added to the disappointment of the loss.
The Utes were a different team against Washington with Alexia Burch scoring 9.9, Adrienne Randall earning 9.875, Cristal Isa scoring 9.85 and O’Keefe scoring a 10.0 before Paulson closed things out with a 9.95.
That the Utes responded so well had Utah coach Tom Farden thrilled, believing the response showed the Utes are evolving as a team.
Being on the floor in the Huntsman Center against Washington certainly isn’t the kind of pressure the Utes will face in the postseason, but Saturday’s response was just the kind of reaction the coaches were hoping to see.
“We were much more aggressive,” he said. “I didn’t see any tentativeness. You always hate to lose as coaches and athletes but they learned from that and took an aggressive and determined attitude.”
Given the way Utah competed on the beam last year and the response on Saturday, it looks like Utah fans might can finally stop fearing the beam as much as they used to in big meets.
A bonus for the Utes on Saturday was the beam wasn’t an isolated performance. Utah followed the beam with a 49.375 on the floor, led by Sydney Soloski’s 9.975 and Paulson’s 9.9.
O’Keefe acknowledged the energy built like the Utes need it to through the meet.
“Our training is getting more precise and we are figuring out what we need to do in pressure situations,” she said.
Vault also continues to improve for the Utes. Cammy Hall and Burch both stuck their vaults, scoring 9.85 and 9.925, respectively. Now that the Utes have added their upgrades on the vault, getting more of the lineup to stick will become the next objective.
Bars also is improving with Isa scoring 9.925 to lead the Utes to a 49.3.
Overall it was an extremely solid meet, even with the fall on beam. The score was the second-highest posted in the nation this year, just behind a 197.5 earned by top-ranked Florida.
The next objective will be for the Utes to keep those 197s coming, Farden noted. He knows they are capable.
“I see that three times a week in practice,” he said of the performance. “No one is putting on a cape, that is what we do in practice.”