alt=Trent WoodUtah was in trouble.
Through three rotations Friday night at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, the Red Rocks had gone head-to-head with Oklahoma, LSU and Alabama for the chance to compete for a national championship and had been found wanting.
Utah trailed both the Sooners and Tigers entering the final rotation of their national semifinal meet, and the gap between them and the competition wasn’t exactly small. With only an uneven bars rotation left, the Red Rocks needed to be almost perfect to get the opportunity to compete for the national title and they knew it.
“We were all a little down,” sophomore Maile O’Keefe said, “not trusting ourselves.”
With their season on the line, the Red Rocks could have crumbled. Instead, they had their best bars rotation of the season and lived to fight another day.
Utah scored a season-high 49.5125 on bars, which secured the program’s second-best score at nationals ever — a 197.600 — and a berth in Saturday’s national championship meet.
Oklahoma won the semifinal with a 198.0875, while Alabama finished in third place with a 197.5750 and LSU finished in fourth with a 197.5625.
Michigan and Florida advanced from the earlier semifinal, with a 197.8625 and a 197.4375, respectively.
“I am a very fortunate man,” Utah head coach Tom Farden said. “I am surrounded by an incredible staff and athletes, just a group of professionals and bought-in athletes. ... Our motto for the weekend was ‘no one is going to out tough us.’ We were going to be the toughest team here. We know that there is a lot of talent in the NCAA, but knew we were going to have to come in here and be as strong and mentally tough as possible and they showed that.”
Throughout the season, bars had been arguably Utah’s weakest event, but slowly and steadily the team improved, week by week, and it all culminated in a performance that Farden could only describe as “incredibly incredible.”
“I’ve been doing this for a long time,” he said. “I know bars. We’ve played around with lineup spots and played around with mechanics and it takes time. It takes a lot of time to develop that throughout the season. Even before regionals, I told the athletes this is what we need to do and this is what will prepare us for the next steps. Today, I told them, ‘What do we have to lose?’ I told them to be aggressive and use our swing.”
It paid off, as Utah now has the chance to compete for its 11th national championship.
Defining moment
Utah’s rally was completed on bars and there was no shortage of standout routines. The lowest score Utah counted on the event was a 9.8750 from Alani Sabado, while O’Keefe’s routine earned her a 9.950 and an individual national title. Cristal Isa and Emilie LeBlanc each scored a 9.90, while Alexia Burch added a 9.8875.
The moment that changed the meet came before a single bar routine was performed, however, courtesy of Sydney Soloski.
One of three team captains, along with Burch and LeBlanc, Soloski gathered the Red Rocks together before the final rotation and all but willed them to their best performance of the season.
“Going into bars, we were all a little down,” said O’Keefe, “but then one of our captains, Sydney Soloski, got us to together and told us not to quit. She said, ‘We are fighters and we are going to fight and show them what we are worth.’ That pushed us over the edge and then we had one of our best bar rotations of the year.”
Soloski’s leadership style is best described as vocal, even forceful sometimes, which was what Utah needed in that instance. But the Red Rocks wouldn’t have pulled it off without the leadership of all of their captains.
“I really appreciate all three leaders this year and the diversity they bring,” Farden said. “Sydney is very vocal, Lexi is one who a lot of athletes gravitate towards because she is a grinder and then Emilie is kind of like a big sister to them. She’ll use compassion, but all three are needed.”
Area of improvement
Almost unbelievably, Utah was at its worst on its best event. The Red Rocks opened the competition on balance beam, where they were ranked No. 3 in the country, and struggled. Mightily.
Nerves played a part, but Utah also just wasn’t as crisp as it needed to be, bobbling unexpectedly on skills or dance elements that gymnasts had excelled at for multiple seasons.
“I think we were all a little nervous, me included,” O’Keefe said. “I had a really good beam routine but bobbled on some dance and didn’t stick my landing and got a little frustrated.”
No Red Rock scored better than a 9.8750 and the 49.2500 on beam was the team’s lowest score on the event since its loss at Oklahoma the second week of the season.
“Believe it or not, our start on balance beam was less than desirable,” Farden said.
Utah wasn’t perfect on vault either and scored just a 49.2375. The problem there stemmed from trying a little too hard to stick landings, and no gymnast scored better than a 9.8750, which was a bounce-back performance for Cammy Hall. Usual stalwarts like Burch and Lucy Stanhope were well off their norm.
“We took a dip on vault, almost like we were trying too hard,” Farden said. “Three of our (Yurchenko) 1.5s had slight steps back.”
Neither the showing on beam nor vault was close to Utah’s best this season.
Area of excitement
Nothing was more encouraging than the Red Rocks’ showing on floor. The team followed up its poor beam rotation with a floor rotation that was better than any of the eight teams that competed Friday, save Oklahoma and Michigan.
Utah scored a 49.600, powered by four scores of 9.90 or better, including a national-best 9.9625 by O’Keefe.
“Our floor rotation was really nice,” O’Keefe said. “Cristal (Isa) led us off strong and then I had one of the best floor routines of the year. I wasn’t so confident going in, but during the routine I trusted my training and had some fun.”
“Floor was incredible,” added Farden.
While the scores were impressive, it was the mental toughness shown by Utah that really stood out. The Red Rocks could have given up after beam, but instead bounced back in a major way and then did so again on bars after the showing on vault.
“It all starts with Tom,” O’Keefe said. “He is tough himself. Our motto this week was ‘No one is going to out tough us.’ We were going to be tough. You can’t really do that unless you have a tough leader. You have to have a tough leader to have a tough team, and Tom is really good with that. It starts with Tom.”
Farden for his part refused all credit.
“All the credit goes to the athletes,” he said. “They are the ones who did the hard work.”