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Utah gymnastics team opens season with victory in Best of Utah Meet

Utah State finishes second, followed by BYU and Southern Utah.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah coach Tom Farden celebrates with Cristal Isa following her performance on the parallel bars at the Best of Utah NCAA Gymnastics Meet at the Maverik Center in West Valley City on Friday, Jan. 7, 2022.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah coach Tom Farden celebrates with Cristal Isa following her performance on the parallel bars at the Best of Utah NCAA Gymnastics Meet at the Maverik Center in West Valley City on Friday, Jan. 7, 2022.

By Lya Wodraska | Special to The Tribune
  | Jan. 8, 2022, 5:37 a.m.
| Updated: 6:52 a.m.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah’s Grace McCallum performs on the beam at the Best of Utah NCAA Gymnastics Meet at the Maverik Center in West Valley City on Friday, Jan. 7, 2022.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah’s Grace McCallum performs on the beam at the Best of Utah NCAA Gymnastics Meet at the Maverik Center in West Valley City on Friday, Jan. 7, 2022.

Well, talk about an introduction to collegiate gymnastics.

Rather than easing the stellar rookie class into competition, Utah put them to the test right away Friday as Amelie Morgan, Grace McCallum and Kara Eaker were the first three up for the Utes as they began the Best of Utah Meet on the balance beam.

The move arguably could have been akin to hazing or at the very least a challenging joke on the trio.

Let’s see, you are making your collegiate debut, competing in front of a crowd for the first time in more than a year and are dealing with the most hype a freshman class has ever had — so here you go, get up on that balance beam, right away.

The trio handled the situation just fine. Actually, the whole team did as the fourth-ranked Utes easily won the Best of Utah Meet Friday scoring 197.1. Utah State was second with 195.875, followed by BYU (195.225) and Southern Utah (195.0).

The Utes, who have been dominant on the balance beam in recent seasons, scored a 49.375 on the event as the three rookies all posted 9.875s and Cristal Isa had a 9.9 and Maile O’Keefe had a 9.85.

Utah coach Tom Farden called it a “baptism by fire,” acknowledging the beam lineup put the newcomers under pressure.

“It was ‘Here we go,’” he said.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah’s Maile O’Keefe performs on the beam at the Best of Utah NCAA Gymnastics Meet at the Maverik Center in West Valley City on Friday, Jan. 7, 2022.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah’s Maile O’Keefe performs on the beam at the Best of Utah NCAA Gymnastics Meet at the Maverik Center in West Valley City on Friday, Jan. 7, 2022.

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Best of Utah individual winners

Vault • Jaedyn Rucker and Grace McCallum (Utah) 9.9

Uneven bars • Cristal Isa and Maile O’Keefe (Utah) 9.875

Balance beam • Cristal Isa (Utah) 9.9

Floor • Brie Clark (Utah State) 9.925

All-around • Rebecca Wells (Utah State) 39.125

Unfortunately, Eaker’s night didn’t end as well as it started. Eaker, an alternate on the Olympic team, had to be helped off the floor after her hand slipped on the vault, causing her to fall.

Farden said Eaker was being evaluated by doctors, but his demeanor wasn’t encouraging.

“I’m devastated for Kara and it will test our depth,” he said. “We will have to figure some things out on three events, vault, beam and floor. This is an athlete that is an Olympic-level athlete and they don’t come around all the time.”

Luckily for the Utes, depth is something they have a lot of, in contrast to last year when the Utes were thin. The depth showed off on Friday as Jillian Hoffman went in the vault lineup for Eaker and scored a 9.8 with a vault worth 9.9.

“It was a beautiful vault,” Farden said.

The Utes scored just 49.175 on the floor, with the high being a 9.875 from Abby Paulson.

Getting low scores on that event can be expected early in the season since the Utes limit hard landings in training.

“We had obvious mistakes but it is a good starting place,” O’Keefe said. “Sometimes you don’t want to start perfect because then you only have so much room to grow and we will only get better.”

After logging a 49.325 on the vault, where the Utes had 9.9s from Jaedyn Rucker and McCallum, the Utes finished with a 49.225 on the uneven bars. Isa and O’Keefe had 9.875s for the high marks.

All in all, it was a solid opening effort for a team hoping to make a run at the national title. Friday’s home opener against No. 3 Oklahoma will be more telling as to where the team is in the big picture, now that the opener is behind them.

“That was the most fans we have experienced since March of 2020,” O’Keefe said. “Just having that in the arena again felt nice.”

By Lya Wodraska | Special to The Tribune