Utah’s Red Rocks vowed to improve on vault this season; now they’re tied with Oklahoma as the top vaulting team in the country

Being ranked No. 1 in any category is something the Utah gymnastics team can be proud of, but seeing their school atop the vault rankings is a particularly satisfying achievement.

Three weeks into the season, the Utes are tied with Oklahoma with a 49.433 average. Individually, MyKayla Skinner is ranked No. 1, averaging 9.967 and MaKenna Merrell-Giles is tied for eighth with a 9.883 average.

The Utes knew they had some strong vaulters, so a high ranking isn’t really much of a surprise, but there is a lot of satisfaction in that their hard work is coming to fruition in competition. In recent seasons the Utes were frequently deducted for hops on their landings.

This year, they are nailing their landings better in addition to performing bigger vaults overall.

“It’s a good thing for Utah,” coach Megan Marsden said. “They are going big and clean. We started out in our home meet with a bang on vault and in road meets we have done well too.”

The Utes put an emphasis on upgrading their vaults in past seasons to have more 10.0 vaults. This year, instead of focusing on difficulty, the Utes are trying to be cleaner.

Right now, Skinner and Merrell-Giles are the only ones who are regularly in the lineup with 10.0 vaults.

The rest of the lineup is performing easier vaults, but any loss in scoring for a lack of difficulty is being made up by near perfect vaults.

Marsden credited second-year assistant coach Robert Ladanyi for his work with the vault lineup for much of the improvement.

Last year the Utes suffered from poor vaulting in the NCAA Championships, scoring just 49.075 in the Super Six, the lowest score of any of the teams on that event. “He was disappointed and wanted to make more of an impact,” Marsden said.

Paying more attention to detail along with plenty of practice is helping the team, junior MyKayla Skinner said.

“We have been trying so hard to stick vaults,” she said. “It helps when you have others go out there and stick because then you think, ‘I can do that too.’”

The only downside to the Utes’ vaulting is a lack of depth. Kim Tessen is close to making the lineup and Missy Reinstadtler is vaulting, although she isn’t 100 percent because of a foot issue so the Utes are limiting her training as needed.

But beyond that the Utes don’t have many big vaults waiting in the wings.

“It isn’t like beam where I can go nine deep and they all have a similar chance for a 9.9,” Marsden said.