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SALT LAKE CITY — The first event of the afternoon on Saturday couldn't have gone much worse for the fourth-ranked Red Rocks in the neutral site Metroplex Challenge meet in Fort Worth, Texas.
Utah was forced to count a 9.725 score on vault from Jaylene Gilstrap as the team finished with a season-low 48.975 — significantly less than the team's average of 49.405 on the event this season.
And while the score was disappointing from the Red Rocks a week after recording its first 198 score of the season, it was secondary to an injury sustained by sophomore Grace McCallum in the fifth spot. McCallum landed awkwardly and instantly grabbed her right knee, according to reports from the meet that was not broadcast in any form.
McCallum was instantly taken away to be evaluated before returning on crutches. Utah gymnastics tweeted that she was "treated by our medical staff" but would not return for the remainder of the meet. The severity of her injury remains unknown, but Utah head coach Tom Farden said the team's medical staff will "find out exactly what happened after we get some thorough testing done."
"We're devastated for her," Farden added.
"Little bit of a rough start, and Grace is a vital part of this team and the heart of this team," Maile O'Keefe said. "Luckily, she'll still be with us and her heart will still be here, and we'll still have her support."
Jillian Hoffman, who knows a thing or two — or three — about serious injuries, was tasked with following up McCallum's injury with the final vault of the afternoon for the Red Rocks. Hoffman scored a respectable 9.80 score to help refocus the team in an early-meet tragedy.
Hoffman's vault did the trick and helped propel the Red Rocks to an afternoon session win of the Metroplex Challenge with a 197.600 score. No. 22 Illinois finished in second with a score of 196.300, followed by Georgia (196.100) and Illinois State (195.850).
"We're really proud of the team rebounding after that injury," Farden said, "and coming back about as strong as they can on three events. ... We'll get to the bottom of what's going on with her and find out, but if it is worst case scenario, just as an indication of how the athletes rebounded from vault to bars, it shows me that they still care and want to still max out this year."
"I think as a team, we do a really good job of bouncing back and not letting that hinder our performance, because then we kind of just flip it and turn it into wanting to perform for them and carry out this for them since they can't be in lineups," O'Keefe said. "We want to do everything we can through our gymnastics to keep that going."
Final scores from Fort Worth! 🙌#trUSt | #GoUtespic.twitter.com/xdWr5L0vKP
— Utah Gymnastics (@UtahGymnastics) February 11, 2023
Despite the poor start, Utah finished in second place after the first rotation and trailed Illinois by .200. But it was the only time the Red Rocks trailed for the remainder of the meet as the team brushed aside the early adversity and set the tone with a strong bars event in the second rotation.
Amelie Morgan opened up bars with a 9.875 score that got an added boost from freshman Makenna Smith, who recorded a career-high 9.90. Smith was only supposed to compete on vault and floor but was moved into the all-around competition when McCallum was ruled out for the rest of the meet.
Utah head coach Tom Farden had indicated in the past that he wanted to have Smith compete in all-around but hadn't made the move yet this season until Saturday. Smith lived up to the billing and finished with an afternoon-high 39.400 score to beat out Georgia's Naya Howard (39.025).
"It is hard last minute to get thrown into that all-around position as a freshman, especially when you haven't quite really done that yet," O'Keefe said. "Makenna is very special in that aspect; she is very, very adaptable, and I think that's one of her greatest attributes. ... To have a freshman to be able to step up into that spot is really special."
The Red Rocks finished out bars strong with back-to-back 9.875 scores from Abby Brenner and Sage Thompson, a 9.925 from Maile O'Keefe and a career-high 9.975 for Cristal Isa in the anchor spot. The team narrowly missed out on tying its season high and finished with a 49.550 to rebound well from the first rotation.
The second rotation was enough to give the Red Rocks a sizable lead that the team never gave up as it pulled away for the victory.
But much like each week, the Red Rocks took over with its nation-leading beam team. Amelie Morgan scored an uncharacteristic 9.50 to start, but her score was dropped since the five gymnasts after her had no problem building upon her score.
Smith recorded a 9.80 and was followed by a 9.925 by Abby Paulson, a 9.950 by Kara Eaker and a 9.925 by Cristal Isa before anchor Maile O'Keefe rounded out the team with her second straight perfect 10.0 on beam in back-to-back weeks. With the perfect score, O'Keefe now has six 10.0 scores on beam, which ties the all-time record held by Theresa Kulikowski (1999-2003).
O'Keefe said she felt her perfect score this week was better than last week's — it was "super clean" — but was disappointed nobody could see it since the meet was not broadcast. Still, she happy to tie the record set by Kulikowski.
"It's amazing to be able to go out and trust myself every weekend to do routines like that. ... Tying the all time record is, I mean, it's amazing," O'Keefe said. "She holds that record for a really long time. This is exactly what I'm here to do, is to break records and become legendary."
The Red Rocks closed out the meet strong on floor and tied a season high of 49.550. Brenner and Paulson both recorded 9.875 scores to open up floor and was followed by four straight 9.90 scores by Gilstrap, Smith, Jaedyn Rucker and Eaker.
Red Rock team scores
1st Rotation: Vault (48.975)
- Jaylene Gilstrap: 9.725
- Abby Brenner: 9.800
- Makenna Smith: 9.800
- Jaedyn Rucker: 9.850
- Grace McCallum: 9.200
- Jillian Hoffman: 9.800
2nd Rotation: Bars (49.550)
- Amelie Morgan: 9.875
- Makenna Smith: 9.900
- Abby Brenner: 9.875
- Sage Thompson: 9.875
- Maile O'Keefe: 9.925
- Cristal Isa: 9.975
3rd Rotation: Beam (49.600)
- Amelie Morgan: 9.500
- Makenna Smith: 9.800
- Abby Paulson: 9.925
- Kara Eaker: 9.950
- Cristal Isa: 9.925
- Maile O'Keefe: 10.0
4th Rotation: Floor (49.475)
- Abby Brenner: 9.875
- Abby Paulson: 9.875
- Jaylene Gilstrap: 9.900
- Makenna Smith: 9.900
- Jaedyn Rucker: 9.900
- Kara Eaker: 9.900
