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SALT LAKE CITY — In front of a record crowd for gymnastics at Gill Coliseum, the fourth-ranked Red Rocks stumbled in the final meet of the regular season and fell to Oregon State on the Beavers' senior day.
Oregon State trailed Utah 49.550-49.300 after the first rotation, but used a season-high 49.550 score on bars in the second rotation to pull away from the Red Rocks. And the Beavers never looked back en route to a 197.950-197.700 win over the Red Rocks to deny the visiting team of a sole regular season Pac-12 championship.
It was also the first Oregon State win over Utah in six seasons.
With Oregon State's win, four teams — Arizona State, California, Oregon State and Utah — all share the Pac-12 championship going into the conference championship meet next week at the Maverik Center in West Valley City.
Olympian Jade Carey won the day with a 39.825 all-around score to help lift the Beavers to victory and to beat out Utah's Makenna Smith (39.425) and Maile O'Keefe (39.000).
"It was completely electric in here," Utah head coach Tom Farden said. "As our team continues to find its identity without two of our Olympians, they're not quitting. You can see they're still fighting, and it's a team of fighters. So that's encouraging."
Even in a loss, though, the Red Rocks improved upon its NQS, which is used to seed the regionals. Utah's 197.700 erases a 197.500 road score against Arizona State to average a 197.845 — up 0.04 from before the meet — but it still drops Utah to No. 5 after UCLA scored a 198.275 to jump the Red Rocks ahead of the Pac-12 championship meet.
The Red Rocks had a chance to overtake the Beavers in the final rotation of the day on beam, but an uncharacteristic fall off the beam by O'Keefe as she mounted the beam kept Utah from a chance; however, even had O'Keefe scored a perfect 10.0 — she did score a perfect score from one judge, minus the fall deduction — Oregon State did well enough to pull off the victory.
"I thought the best thing was to put my arm around her and tell her, 'Hey, you know, you're human.' And other than her pride, nothing else was hurt. ... So I just put my arm around her and told her we're going to charge forward and not take things for granted from here on out," Farden said.
While O'Keefe's fall hurt, it was far from what did the Red Rocks in on Saturday afternoon.
In the second rotation of the day, the Red Rocks opened up its vault routine with a 9.775 score in the leadoff spot by O'Keefe, who stuck the landing and then had two small hops. Abby Brenner got the event back on track with a 9.90 score that was followed by back-to-back 9.825 scores from Jaylene Gilstrap and Smith before a 9.90 from Jaedyn Rucker.
But Lucy Stanhope, who returned to competition for the first time since January, slightly slipped on the table and was too low on her landing, which forced her to sit down and record a 8.925. The sit down meant the Red Rocks had to count O'Keefe's score and the team found itself in the hole.
From there, the Red Rocks tried to battle back on floor and beam, but the Beavers didn't give much of an inch.
On floor, Utah counted all scores over a 9.875 and had three over a 9.90 to finish with a 49.475 team score, but Oregon State recorded a 49.550 to add to its lead behind Carey's meet-high 9.975 and a 9.925 by Madi Dagen.
Still, there was confidence among the Red Rocks that a victory was in sight going into the final rotation, especially with its nation-leading beam team. That beam team got 9.925 scores from Abby Paulson and Cristal Isa, and a 9.90 from Jaylene Gilstrap in the anchor position, but there was no stopping the Beavers before a raucous crowd of 8,859 people.
The Red Rocks were without Grace McCallum again as she recovers from a hyperextended knee, but was also without fellow Olympian Kara Eaker, who was in concussion protocols. Jillian Hoffman, who has become Utah's anchor on vault, was held out today for rest, according to Farden.
Team scores
No. 4 Red Rocks
- Bars (49.550)
- Vault (98.775, 49.225)
- Floor (148.250, 49.475)
- Beam (197.700, 49.450)
No. 13 Oregon State
- Vault (49.300)
- Bars (98.850, 49.550)
- Beam (148.400, 49.550)
- Floor (197.950, 49.550)
Red Rocks individual scores
1st Rotation: Bars (49.550)
- Amelie Morgan: 9.875
- Makenna Smith: 9.850
- Abby Brenner: 9.900
- Sage Thompson: 9.950
- Maile O'Keefe: 9.875
- Cristal Isa: 9.950
2nd Rotation: Vault (49.225)
- Maile O'Keefe: 9.775
- Abby Brenner: 9.900
- Jaylene Gilstrap: 9.825
- Makenna Smith: 9.825
- Jaedyn Rucker: 9.900
- Lucy Stanhope: 8.925
3rd Rotation: Floor (49.475)
- Abby Brenner: 9.875
- Jaylene Gilstrap: 9.900
- Abby Paulson: 9.900
- Makenna Smith: 9.875
- Jaedyn Rucker: 9.700
- Maile O'Keefe: 9.925
4th Rotation: Beam (49.450)
- Amelie Morgan: 9.825
- Makenna Smith: 9.875
- Abby Paulson: 9.925
- Cristal Isa: 9.925
- Maile O'Keefe: 9.425
- Jaylene Gilstrap: 9.900
