The University of Utah gymnastics team wins the Pac-12 championships

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

Two opinions could be taken on the last few appearances of the Utah gymnastics team, that the disappointing displays would be a great wake-up call to the Pac-12 championships or that they meant the Utes were past their peak and on their way were down. at the wrong time of the year.

Well, guess we know which theory was correct.

The Utah gymnastics team broke out of its slump and delivered a dominant performance on Saturday to win the Pac-12 Championship at the Maverik Center with a 197,725. California overtook UCLA in the final rotation to finish second with 197,375, while the Bruins settled for third (196,725) and the state of Arizona fourth (196,375). The Utes last won the conference meeting in 2017.

“It was a great night,” said Utah coach Tom Farden. “I am very proud of the team and the athletes and the staff. It takes a village to win a conference championship, and I’m very grateful at this point. “

UCLA, which won in 2018 and 2019, was the Utes’ closest competitor in the first half of the line, even leading Utah with 49,525-49,325 after the first rotation.

However, there was no sense of panic among the Utes as they assumed their opening event on bars would be their low score, even if it was a best season.

With bars behind them, the Utes put in the kind of feats they said they were capable of, as Utah posted score after score of 9.9 or higher. In all, the Utes finished with 13 scores of 9.9 or higher, a score that Farden emphasizes lately.

The Utes absolutely dominated the balance beam, scoring a 49,675, while Cristal Isa, Maile O’Keefe and Abby Paulson all scored 9.95.

That figure was good enough to put the Utes for UCLA 99-98.95. That blasting performance, impressive as it was, wasn’t surprising given the Utes’ talent on the device over the past two years.

What was surprising was Utah’s ability to match that score on the floor. There, O’Keefe, Jaedyn Rucker, and Sydney Soloski all had 9.95s, which gave Utah a comfortable margin of 148,675 over UCLA’s 148.3 entering its final rotation.

Vault was disappointing, with the Utes scoring only 49.05, but by then the Utes were leading comfortably and had the game all but locked up.

O’Keefe has had such a strong season Saturday’s efforts seemed almost mundane to her as she scored 9.95s on everything except the jump where she had a 9.85. It wasn’t until the final scores were added that it became clear how great an evening she had as she won the all round and earned a piece of every individual title except the vault.

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

“They were hungry,” said Farden. “I said the last two weeks of practice were good and solid and confident, and they fueled that in tight competition tonight. They had a chip on their shoulder and something to prove. “

In terms of the program, it was a big win as the conference meeting has eluded the Utes in recent years. After watching UCLA win back-to-back titles, the Utes thought they’d get their shot last year after going unbeaten, only to cancel the post-season due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

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

Really, losing Saturday’s game was perhaps a devastating enough loss to send the Utes down the rankings and disappear from the national picture.

Saturday’s win puts the Utes in a totally new position, given the way they dominated.

Yes, the game got off to a shaky start when Abby Paulson fell off bars in first place, but the Utes hardly seemed upset when they put together so many strong routines that the expected close-meet depended on an overall routines.

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