SALT LAKE CITY — When Maile O’Keefe signed with Utah just under a year ago, alongside fellow freshmen Abby Paulson, Jillian Hoffman and Jaedyn Rucker, expectations were high.
As a former member of Team USA and a P&G national all-around champion, O’Keefe’s accolades brought with them the prospect of greatness. On paper, she had the makings of the next great Red Rock.
A less-than-perfect debut in Utah’s season opener against Kentucky dampened those expectations a bit, but Saturday night at the inaugural Best of Utah meet, O’Keefe competed in the all-around — she is the only Utah gymnast to do so this season — and she did not disappoint.
The Las Vegas native scored a 9.850 on both balance beam and floor exercise — she earned a spot in the floor lineup after the exhibition routine she performed against Kentucky. “We felt like she earned the right to be on the floor,” Utah head coach Tom Farden said — en route to 39.125 all-around score and a third-place finish.
“I thought she did a really good job,” Farden said. “She had a really nice beam and vault.”
O’Keefe struggled for the second consecutive week on uneven bars — she scored a 9.600 against Kentucky and a 9.650 at the Best of Utah — but even that wasn’t all that disappointing, according to Farden. In fact, it was almost encouraging.
“We are getting there on bars,” he said. “She had a little mistake on bars, but she stuck her dismount. I think she is closing in on a complete, amazing meet.”
WCGA RANKINGS: For the second consecutive week, the Red Rocks (196.713) are the No. 4 ranked team in the country, trailing only No. 1 Oklahoma (197.513), No. 2 Florida (197.350) and No. 3 Denver (196.725). Utah is one of only three teams, the other two being the Sooners and Gators, to score 197-plus in a meet this season. The Red Rocks’ performance at the Best of Utah meet Saturday night was enough to push them past Pac-12 rival UCLA in the rankings, as the Bruins come in at No. 5 (196.688). Other ranked Pac-12 teams include No. 18 California, No. 21 Arizona, No. 23 Washington and No. 25 Stanford.
This week’s rankings are of a more legitimate nature than those that followed the opening week of competition, as every team in the NCAA has now competed at least once, many twice. Of the teams ranked ahead of Utah, Oklahoma and Denver have each competed twice, while Florida has only competed once.
INDIVIDUAL STANDOUTS: Only one Utah gymnast is currently ranked in the top 10 nationally on any event — senior Kim Tessen. Tessen is ranked No. 3 on bars, tied with Oklahoma’s Maggie Nichols and Ragan Smith, with an average score of 9.938.
Tessen is also the highest-ranked Red Rock on vault (No. 16) and floor (No. 16), while freshman Paulson and sophomore Cristal Isa are tied for No. 14 on beam.
As a team, Utah is ranked No. 6 on floor, beam and vault and No. 10 on bars.