A national commentator earlier this week said to “watch out” for the Utah Red Rocks in the NCAA Gymnastics National Championships.
Boy, was he right.
The Red Rocks not only advanced to the championship final on Saturday, they did so by finishing first Thursday against a field that included No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 4 Florida. They finished with a score of 197.9375.
The four teams competing Saturday in Fort Worth, Texas, are No. 5 Utah, No. 4 Florida, No. 2 Louisiana State and No. 3 California. The meet starts at 2 p.m.
Utah started the meet on fire. The Red Rocks put up a season high on beam in the first rotation with a score of 49.6375. Jaeden Rucker fell during her floor routine, but her teammates erased that score with four routines of at least 9.900.
While the vault scores were a bit lower than the Red Rocks are used to, they still did more than enough to hold their lead through three rotations. But Florida was close behind, just 0.025 points away from first.
The Red Rocks finished on the uneven bars and had a solid showing to secure first place.
Oklahoma, the No. 1 ranked team in the country, started the meet by counting two falls on vault. The Sooners also had to count a fall on balance beam.
Meet Results
Utah — 197.9375
Florida — 197.8750
Oklahoma — 196.6625
Alabama — 195.4125
Top Utah Scores
Beam
• Maile O’Keefe, Abby Paulson — 9.950
• Amelie Morgan, Makenna Smith — 9.9250
Floor
• Jaylene Gilstrap, O’Keefe — 9.950
Vault
• Ella Zirbes, Smith — 9.9125
Bars
• Zirbes — 9.9250
• Smith — 9.9125
