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FORT WORTH, Texas — Some nights you’re on, dominating the competition. Some nights you’re off, uncharacteristically making mistakes.
Unfortunately, the Red Rocks had an off night on one of the biggest stages in collegiate gymnastics Friday evening in the Fort Worth Convention Center.
The Salt Lake City regional winner and nation’s fifth-ranked team entered the NCAA’s second semifinal with the most favorable rotation order — the home order of vault, bye, bars, beam, bye and floor — by random draw. However, that proved to not matter as critical, uncharacteristic mistakes became costly.
The Utes’ season-low score of 195.7625 was last among the six teams in their semifinal and ninth among all 12 teams. Utah beat afternoon semifinal teams Stanford (195.5750), Auburn (195.10) and Minnesota (194.9875). Oklahoma (197.7875), Alabama (197.3875) and UCLA (196.70) advanced from the second semifinal to join defending champion Florida (197.4750), LSU (197.3375) and Georgia (196.7250) for Saturday night’s Super Six national championship.
“We had a great season overall and a rough night tonight,” said Utah co-head coach Tom Farden.
Utah started its night earning 49.10 on vault, one of its lowest vault scores of the season. Breanna Hughes, who scored a 38.9375 in the all-around, earned the team’s high vault score with 9.8875. Kailah Delaney and Tiffani Lewis put a 9.8375 and 9.80 on the scoreboard, respectively.
After a second rotation bye, the Red Rocks competed on bars and scored 49.2875. Kassandra Lopez was the only Ute to score a 9.90, tying for fourth across both semifinals. Sabrina Schwab earned 9.875 in her NCAA championship debut while Baely Rowe’s 9.8625 contributed to her 39.3875 all-around score.
Oklahoma (98.850) led at the meet’s midway point, followed by Alabama (98.6125), UCLA (98.60), Utah (98.3875), Nebraska (98.0125) and California (97.950).
What came next for the Red Rocks was an utter disaster. The first two gymnasts, Samantha Partyka and Delaney, fell, resulting in Utah counting a 9.1375. What seemed like a redeeming routine by Hughes was thrown off course when she stumbled badly on her dismount. The remaining three athletes, Lopez (9.80), Rowe (9.90) and Maddy Stover (9.8125), put up scores to boost Utah’s score. However, the season-low 48.1375 wasn’t enough and knocked the 2015 runner-up out of the competition.
“I told them what’s done is done,” Farden said to the team going into its fifth rotation bye.
“We have one more event. Let’s show some pride and go out and attack it,” he added.
When the Utes came out to compete on floor, knowing it’d be the last time they’d compete together, they did exactly what Farden asked them to do. Lewis had the team’s best score with 9.8625, followed by Sabrina Schwab and Hughes’ 9.850s to lead Utah’s 49.2375 total.
“I feel especially bad for the seniors since they don’t get another shot at it,” said Farden.
Seniors Delaney, Hughes and Lopez leave a legacy that includes two Pac-12 team championships, an NCAA runner-up finish and four NCAA championship appearances. There are also a combined 10 All-American awards — five by Hughes, three by Delaney and two by Lopez — between the trio and one Pac-12 all-around championship (Hughes).
