Thrice as nice: Red Rocks make history, win 3rd straight Pac-12 championship

WEST VALLEY CITY — Tom Farden called it one of the "gutsiest" performances in recent Red Rocks history.

With his team in third place after the first rotation of the second session of the Pac-12 gymnastics championship, there was little room for error as the two-time reigning conference champions. By the time the fifth-ranked Red Rocks entered its final event of the night, the team controlled a 0.250 lead over fourth-ranked UCLA.

And while that type of lead would generally be considered comfortable in a traditional meet, it was anything but on Saturday night with UCLA hot on its heels and the Bruins closing out the meet on floor — its best event, which also happens to lead the nation.

To make matters even more nerve wracking for the Red Rocks, their final event of the night was vault — an event that has been hit or miss for the team this season. And with no other team scoring higher than a 49.275 on the event, the chances of maintaining the lead in the end seemed iffy, at best.

But the Red Rocks answered the call, staved off defeat, and claimed their third straight Pac-12 championship and became the first program in the Pac-12 era to three-peat. The Red Rocks finished the championship meet with a 197.925 score, narrowly beating UCLA's score of 197.850 in second place.

California finished in third with a score of 197.825; and Oregon State, which opened up the meet with a commanding lead, finished in fourth with a score of 197.200 to round out the second session. Arizona State (196.700), Arizona (196.375), Washington (196.375) and Stanford (195.875) all competed in the first session earlier in the day at the Maverik Center.

"It was really fun getting to end on vault, because a lot of people doubt our vault sometimes," Utah senior Jaedyn Rucker said. "But in our hearts, we know that we're really good on that event. And it was just really exciting to go out there and finally show what we're made of."

Maile O'Keefe led off on the final event and scored a strong 9.850 to give the Red Rocks a good place to start. And then in the second position, Abby Brenner perfectly stuck her vault and scored a meet-high 9.925 to build upon the momentum. Makenna Smith and Rucker added 9.90 scores of their own and the team finished with a meet high 49.425.

But the Red Rocks couldn't celebrate just yet. There was a mix up with the recorded scores on the video boards, so no one in the Maverik Center knew if Utah had done enough to stave off defeat. To add to the tense finish, UCLA had gained ground on floor and recorded four scores of 9.90 or better on floor before Olympian Jordan Chiles closed out the meet.

By the time Chiles started her routine, though, the video board issues had been fixed and it was known that even if Chiles had scored a perfect 10.0, the Red Rocks were champions.

"This is one of the hardest championships we've won," Utah head coach Tom Farden said. "Everybody can notice the uncharacteristic things — and there were a lot of those tonight — but what I really want people to realize is the actual character of the team.

"This is where the locker room matters. When you come to a meet like this with this type of pressure, and there are mistakes early in lineups, late in lineups, and nobody quits, this is what separated us from winning this championship was absolutely our team chemistry and the locker room and nothing else."

It was a win that was even more satisfying for the Utah gymnasts after UCLA had jumped them in the rankings the week prior. The Bruins will remain one spot higher than the Red Rocks going into regionals, but the Red Rocks have the hardware.

"I think this one was really special just because going into it we were obviously the two seed, but we got to end on a really good event for us, and I think it was just like a really good tell for ourselves that we are a good team and we need to be confident and we need to work on that," O'Keefe said.

"We don't really focus on the scores going in, so half of us had no clue going in," Rucker said. "When I talked to the team I was just like we have every gear, we're just gonna give everything we have. Just go out there, give it literally your all — it's three seconds — just go out there; and that's exactly what we did."

While vault was what eventually won the championship for the Red Rocks, it was Utah's middle two events, beam and floor, that ultimately put the team in position to win. The Red Rocks had some missteps on beam in the second rotation, but used three straight 9.950 scores to end the event to propel the team forward on floor, where all five scores counted were over 9.90.

Kara Eaker returned to the beam lineup after a couple weeks away and scored a 9.950 in the fourth spot to kickstart the Red Rocks' momentum. Cristal Isa and O'Keefe followed up her score with 9.950 scores of their own.

And then on floor, Jaylene Gilstrap in the second spot recorded a 9.925, and the momentum continued. Abby Paulson (9.90), Makenna Smith (9.925), Rucker (9.90) and O'Keefe (9.950) followed it up to give the Red Rocks its first lead of the night.

"They were turning points where we needed them to be turning points," Farden said of Eaker and Gilstrap. "So a lot of clutch performances tonight, but if you can see what that did to the momentum of those two events, it sparked it. It was incredible."

Oregon State's Jade Carey finished the meet with a 39.750 score to win the all-around competition, beating out O'Keefe (39.675) and UCLA's Selena Harris (39.625). Chiles also competed in the all-around, but had a rare fall off of beam that knocked her out of the all-around competition. She, however, scored the top scores (9.975) on bars and floor (Carey tied her on floor).

2nd Session team scores

No. 4 UCLA

• Vault (49.175)
• Bars (98.750, 49.575)
• Beam (148.250, 49.500)
• Floor (197.850, 49.600)

No. 5 Utah

• Bars (49.375)
• Beam (98.900, 49.525)
• Floor (148.500, 49.600)
• Vault (197.925, 49.425)

No. 7 California

• Floor (49.475)
• Vault (98.750, 49.275)
• Bars (148.200, 49.450)
• Beam (197.825, 49.625)

No. 11 Oregon State

• Beam (49.500)
• Floor (99.000, 49.450)
• Vault (148.125, 49.125)
• Bars (197.200, 49.075)

Red Rocks individual scores

1st Rotation: Bars (49.375)

• Amelie Morgan: 9.875
• Makenna Smith: 9.850
• Abby Brenner: 9.875
• Sage Thompson: 9.850
• Maile O'Keefe: 9.925
• Cristal Isa: 9.550

2nd Rotation: Beam (49.525)

• Amelie Morgan: 9.900
• Makenna Smith: 9.725
• Abby Paulson: 9.775
• Kara Eaker: 9.950
• Cristal Isa: 9.950
• Maile O'Keefe: 9.950

3rd Rotation: Floor (49.600)

• Abby Brenner: 9.675
• Jaylene Gilstrap: 9.925
• Abby Paulson: 9.900
• Makenna Smith: 9.925
• Jaedyn Rucker: 9.900
• Maile O'Keefe: 9.950

4th Rotation: Vault (49.425)

• Maile O'Keefe: 9.850
• Abby Brenner: 9.925
• Jaylene Gilstrap: 9.825
• Makenna Smith: 9.900
• Jaedyn Rucker: 9.900
• Lucy Stanhope: 9.850

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