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SALT LAKE CITY — The final meet of the regular season for the No. 4 Red Rocks had nothing to do with which team "won."
Maybe that's what losers say to justify a loss, but the reality is the night was about one thing for the Red Rocks as they traveled to a hostile Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana: improving upon the team's 197.275 road score recorded against California on Feb. 12.
Any all-around score Friday night better than what Utah got against California would help improve the team's national qualifying score, or NQS, of 197.750. The higher the NQS, the better the chance for the Red Rocks to remain in the top four rankings in the country to draw the top seed in the upcoming regionals.
So while a win against a No. 7 LSU program was certainly the hope, it wasn't entirely necessary, either.
And the Red Rocks were forced to do it without the help of junior Maile O'Keefe and senior Adrianne Randall. O'Keefe, who Tom Farden said was supposed to compete in the all-around competition Friday, was held out of the meet due to a non-COVID related illness. The decision to hold O'Keefe out was made as the team got on the bus to travel to the meet.
Randall, who contracted the flu, did not travel with the team to Louisiana.
But even without the help of its two veteran gymnasts, the Red Rocks closed out the meet with a dominating beam performance as the team finished the night with an all-around score of 197.875 — securing a 197.870 NQS in live scoring.
Road trip meet goals accomplished.
Conversely, LSU had its best meet of the season to win the night with a season-high 198.125 — moving the Tigers into fifth place nationally in the live scoring of NQS, just barely missing out on a top-four ranking.
LSU's Haleigh Bryant won the individual all-around competition Friday with a 39.700 score, beating out Utah's Grace McCallum, who finished the night with a 39.600 score. Bryant received a perfect 10.0 on vault to start off the night for LSU, and then scored a 9.90 on bars, 9.850 on beam — the lowest score on the event in the meet — and finished with a 9.950 on floor.
McCallum finished with a 9.90 or higher on three of the four events, with her low being a 9.850 on floor. And though McCallum helped anchor the high scores for the Red Rocks Friday night, it was the beam team that delivered in the final event of the night.
British Olympian Amelie Morgan led off with a 9.925 and set the tone for what was Utah's highest beam score of the season on the road. Morgan was followed by McCallum and Alexia Burch's back-to-back 9.90 scores, and Abby Paulson and Cristal Isa rounded out the counted scores with back-to-back 9.975 scores. All of it led to a solid night on beam.
"Abby's routine was incredible," Farden said. "And she was in a great frame of mind and I thought she did a really nice job on delivery. Just notice that she's slowing things down in terms of her head and not getting ahead of her skill movement patterns that she needs to do and execute. So really pleased with Abby, but again, the whole beam lineup was spectacular."
Utah scored a 49.400 on all three events before beam in what turned out to be a good but not great night. As the team looks to build on momentum heading into the Pac-12 championship and regionals, Farden wants to see his team hitting its stride. But with a key gymnast like O'Keefe scratched from the lineup hours before the meet, the expectations were slightly tempered — maybe, but just a little.
Sometimes it's true where a team can win even when it loses.
Team scores
Red Rocks
- Bars (49.400)
- Vault (98.800, 49.400)
- Floor (148.200, 49.400)
- Beam (197.875, 49.675)
LSU
- Vault (49.525)
- Bars (98.950, 49.425)
- Beam (148.450, 49.500)
- Floor (198.125, 49.675)
Individual Red Rocks scores
1st Rotation: Bars (49.400)
- Amelie Morgan: 9.850
- Grace McCallum: 9.925
- Abby Paulson: 9.825
- Alexia Burch: 9.000
- Sage Thompson: 9.900
- Cristal Isa: 9.900
2nd Rotation: Vault (49.400)
- Sage Thompson: 9.725
- Cammy Hall: 9.850
- Lucy Stanhope: 9.875
- Jaedyn Rucker: 9.875
- Alexia Burch: 9.875
- Grace McCallum: 9.925
3rd Rotation: Floor (49.400)
- Abby Paulson: 9.850
- Jaylene Gilstrap: 9.875
- Lucy Stanhope: 9.875
- Jaedyn Rucker: 9.775
- Grace McCallum: 9.850
- Sydney Soloski: 9.950
4th Rotation: Beam (49.675)
- Amelie Morgan: 9.925
- Grace McCallum: 9.900
- Alexia Burch: 9.900
- Abby Paulson: 9.975
- Cristal Isa: 9.975
- Kara Eaker: 9.875
