Amazing Grace! McCallum has career night as No. 4 Red Rocks move past Washington

SALT LAKE CITY — Olympian Grace McCallum knows how to perform with pressure on an international stage.

So it would be reasonable to assume that collegiate gymnastics would come easy to the freshman at the University of Utah. And while McCallum has already excelled for the No. 4 Red Rocks this season, it wasn't until Monday night where the Minnesota native really showed the collegiate world what she can do.

McCallum earned a career-high all-around score of 39.775, beating out her previous high set against Oklahoma earlier in the season of 39.675. She opened up the night with a 9.90 score on bars — her lowest score of the night — and only improved from there with back-to-back scores of 9.950 on vault and floor, and then topped it off on beam in the second position with a 9.975 score.

"It's easy to take somebody who's a double world champion and a silver medalist in the Olympics and just assume they just know how to do everything, but we're all reminded that they're still athletes and they need some guidance and we need to co pilot this with them," Utah head coach Tom Farden said of McCallum's growth. "As coaches, we are learning her better, I think this is a byproduct of some better training tips."

McCallum's effort, along with that of her team's strong night in Seattle against Washington, pushed the Red Rocks to their seventh win of the season.

The Red Rocks scored a road-high score of 197.950, narrowly missing out on a back-to-back effort to hit the 198 threshold in four days. Washington finished with a score of 197.275, topping a season-high record reached last week of 196.825.

"Nice team score on the road," Farden said. "Shoulda, coulda, woulda for that 198, but overall pleased."

The season-high road score helped the Red Rocks improve upon their national qualifying score, which would put the team at No. 2 in the current rankings. The NQS rankings average out the top six scores of the season (with the top score thrown out), which must include three road meets, to give the Red Rocks a potential No. 1 seed at regionals if they stay in the top four in the rankings.

"For tonight, we really wanted them to just come out here and be — I know this sounds kind of goofy or cliche — but we wanted them to come out here and just let their gymnastics happen and have some fun, be on the road."

The Red Rocks opened up the night on bars with back-to-back 9.90 scores from Amelie Morgan and McCallum, but couldn't maintain the momentum. None of the final four gymnasts on the event scored below a 9.80, but the team missed out on a few opportunities to push up the score and finished with a 49.350, narrowly edging out Washington's season-high 49.325 on vault.

Hoping to make up some ground on vault, Utah got a 9.775 from Sage Thompson and an uncharacteristic 9.425 from Cammy Hall as she staved off sitting down on her landing. The deductions weren't how Utah hoped to start, but Lucy Stanhope got the Red Rocks on track with a 9.875 that was followed by Jaedyn Rucker's 9.850, Alexia Burch's 9.950 and McCallum's 9.950.

Washington, again, scored a season high 49.325 on bars to keep the meet tight between the two Pac-12 teams, though the Red Rocks still controlled a 98.750-98.650 lead.

But floor and beam was where Utah made their move and recorded back-to-back team scores of 49.600 on each event.

On floor, the Red Rocks had four gymnasts score over a 9.90, with senior Sydney Soloski earning a 9.975 — always so close to a perfect 10.0. On beam, Morgan led the event with a 9.950, McCallum added a 9.975 and Adrienne Randall finished with a 9.950 to put the Red Rocks in a strong position to break the 198 barrier for the second meet in a row.

With Abby Paulson, Cristal Isa and Maile O'Keefe left to go on beam, the score seemed like as much of a guarantee as there is with the Red Rocks. The three had solid routines and maintained stuck landings for all the gymnasts on the event but had some balance checks to draw scores down.

O'Keefe needed a 9.90 to push the Red Rocks over the 198 threshold, but had a rare balance check where she saved herself from falling off beam and scored a 9.775.

"The first half was really outstanding, and then we felt like maybe the last three, they knew that we were heading in a good direction," Farden said. "I don't know if we pressed too much to try to get some perfect scores or what, but obviously the last we were not indicative of what the athletes are capable of."

But the balance checks weren't enough to keep Utah down as they ran away with another victory.

Team scores

No. 4 Red Rocks

• Bars (49.350)
• Vault (98.750, 49.400)
• Floor (148.350, 49.600)
• Beam (197.950, 49.600)

GymDawgs

• Vault (49.325)
• Bars (98.650, 49.325)
• Beam (147.850, 49.200)
• Floor (197.275, 49.425)

Individual Red Rocks scores

1st Rotation: Bars (49.350)

• Amelie Morgan: 9.900
• Grace McCallum: 9.900
• Abby Paulson: 9.800
• Sage Thompson: 9.850
• Maile O'Keefe: 9.825
• Cristal Isa: 9.875

2nd Rotation: Vault (49.400)

• Sage Thompson: 9.775
• Cammy Hall: 9.425
• Lucy Stanhope: 9.875
• Jaedyn Rucker: 9.850
• Alexia Burch: 9.950
• Grace McCallum: 9.950

3rd Rotation: Floor (49.600)

• Abby Paulson: 9.900
• Jaylene Gilstrap: 9.875
• Adrienne Randall: 9.900
• Lucy Stanhope: 9.500
• Grace McCallum: 9.950
• Sydney Soloski: 9.975

4th Rotation: Beam (49.600)

• Amelie Morgan: 9.950
• Grace McCallum: 9.975
• Adrienne Randall: 9.950
• Abby Paulson: 9.875
• Cristal Isa: 9.850
• Maile O'Keefe: 9.775

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