University of Utah Gymnastics Team Wins Pac-12 Championships

Utah wins the conference for the first time since 2017, with Cal second and UCLA third.

Two views could be taken from the Utah gymnastics team’s latest performances, that the disappointing results would be a great wake-up call ahead of the Pac-12 Championships or that they meant the Utes were past their prime and were in going down at the wrong time of year.

Well I guess we know which theory was the correct one.

The Utah Gymnastics team came out of their slump to deliver a dominant performance on Saturday to win the Pac-12 Championship at the Maverik Center with a 197.725. California passed UCLA in the final rotation to finish second with a 197.375 while the Bruins settled for third (196.725) and Arizona State was fourth (196.375). The Utes last won the conference in 2017.

“It was a great night,” Utah coach Tom Farden said. “I am very proud of the team, the athletes and the staff. It takes a village to win a conference championship, and I feel really grateful right now.

UCLA, who won in 2018 and 2019, were the Utes’ closest contender in the first half of the competition and actually led Utah 49.525-49.325 after the first rotation.

There was no sense of panic among the Utes, however, as they assumed their opening event at bars would be their low scoring, even though it was a better season.

With the bars behind them, the Utes put on the kind of performance they said they were capable of having, as Utah posted one score after another of 9.9 or more. In total, the Utes finished with 13 scores of 9.9 or more, a tally that Farden has been emphasizing lately.

The Utes absolutely dominated on the beam, scoring a 49.675 with Cristal Isa, Maile O’Keefe and Abby Paulson at 9.95.

This rating was good enough to put the Utes ahead of UCLA 99-98.95. This performance on the beam, impressive as it is, was not surprising given the Utes’ talent on the apparatus over the past two years.

What was surprising was Utah’s ability to tie that score on the floor. There, O’Keefe, Jaedyn Rucker and Sydney Soloski all had 9.95, giving Utah a comfortable 148.675 margin to UCLA’s 148.3 heading into the final rotation.

Vault was a disappointment, with the Utes scoring just 49.05, but at that point the Utes were comfortably leading and almost closed the competition.

O’Keefe has had such a solid season that Saturday’s efforts seemed almost trivial to her as she scored 9.95 on everything except the jump, where she had a 9.85. It wasn’t until the final scores were tallied that it was obvious how much of a good evening she had won the all-around and won a portion of every individual title except the jump.

The immediate reaction to the Utes’ victory was that it showed that the Utes can indeed step up their gymnastics in big competitions, just like they said.

“They were hungry,” Farden said. “I said the last two weeks of training have been good, strong and confident, and they built on that tonight in close competition. They had a chip on their shoulder and something to prove.

In terms of program, it was a great victory because the conference meeting has eluded the Utes in recent years. After watching UCLA win back-to-back titles, the Utes thought they would get their chance last year after going undefeated, only to have the playoffs called off due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Now, the Utes can not only enjoy a sweep of the regular season and conference titles, but they can look forward to the NCAA regional meet in two weeks with renewed confidence.

Really, losing Saturday’s game could have been a loss devastating enough to send the Utes spiraling down the standings and out of the national table.

Saturday’s win puts the Utes in a whole new position, considering how they have dominated.

Yes, the encounter got off to a precarious start when Abby Paulson fell off the bars in first place, but the Utes hardly looked shaken as they put in so many strong routines that the expected close encounter was based on utter rout.

It was the kind of meeting the Utes not only wanted to have, but needed if they were to be taken seriously as the NCAAs loomed.