Things seem to be going the Utes’ way at the moment.
As the Utah gymnastics team prepares for the NCAA Championships, the Utes have moved up to No. 2 in the nation.
And now there’s an outside chance they could get one of their stars back, too.
Grace McCallum, who hyperextended her knee in mid-February, could be well enough to contribute on the balance beam or uneven bars in the competition next week, Utah coach Tom Farden said.
“Everything is day-to-day with Grace,” he said.
McCallum’s talents are undeniable and Farden also did not seem overly worried about potentially disrupting the chemistry of a lineup that is competing very well together now.
“I feel like I have an obligation to have as many ready on each even as we can,” he said. “If Grace is an option on bars or beam we’d look at that. ... I’m going to prepare all the athletes we have available and let them do their job.”
What the Utes do know for certain about next week’s competition in Fort Worth: They will start on the floor and end on the balance beam.
The Utes were given that rotation for the NCAA Championships finals April 13-15 in a random draw for the final eight teams. It’s the rotation gymnastics teams tend to hate — but not the Utes.
Farden sounded optimistic about the rotation since the Utes are the No. 1 ranked team on beam and they are coming off the best overall showing of the regional competition.
“It’s a good rotation for us,” he said. “It’s the same rotation we had last year when we made it into the finals so we are excited.”
Utah’s rotation has flip-flopped from the finals last year when the Utes started on beam. They ultimately finished third behind Oklahoma and Florida and ahead of Auburn.
This year Utah, which moved up to No. 2 in the rankings with a national qualifying score of 395.96, will compete in the evening session against top-ranked Oklahoma (396.405) and No. 5 UCLA (395.875), No. 7 Kentucky (395.56).
The afternoon session features No. 3 Florida (395.91), No. 4 Cal (395.9), No. 6 LSU (395.59) and No. 8 Denver (395.32),
The top two teams from each session advance to the finals.
NCAA Championships
April 13-15
Fort Worth, Texas
1 p.m. session: Denver (vault), Florida (uneven bars), LSU (balance beam), Cal (floor)
7 p.m. session: Kentucky (vault), Oklahoma (uneven bars), UCLA (balance beam, Utah (floor)
Utah’s session looks particularly tough since Oklahoma defeated the Utes earlier in the year and is the defending champion and UCLA is probably really tired of losing to the Utes this year, having done so three times, with the latest being on its home floor in the regional competition.
The Utes know nothing is guaranteed.
The difficulty of the postseason was highlighted last weekend by Michigan, the 2021 champion and third-ranked team going into regionals, and Alabama, ranked No. 8 a week ago, failing to make it out of the regional competition.
“Those are gym blue bloods with all kinds of tradition,” Farden said. “It continues to show how hard this format is. We are tickled pink to be where we are and coming off two really, really good performances.”
