Utah didn’t need to be excellent to walk away from the Maverik Center Friday night with a first-place finish at the Best of Utah.

Realistically, the Red Rocks needn’t have improved upon their Week 1 showing against LSU in order to win the in-state showcase for the fourth straight year.

Utah is simply on a different level than its in-state competition (BYU, Utah State and Southern Utah). The fact that the Red Rocks haven’t lost to in-state competition since 1998 is demonstrative of that.

Special Collector's Issue: "1984: The Year BYU was Second to None"
Get an inclusive look inside BYU Football's 1984 National Championship season.

And yet, powered by an incredible beam rotation — featuring a perfect 10 by Kara Eaker — and the all-around excellence of Grace McCallum, Utah cruised to a dominant victory over the Cougars, Aggies and T-Birds.

Results


Team scores — Utah, 197.750; Southern Utah, 196.175; Utah State, 195.800; BYU, 195.175



Event winners


All-around — Grace McCallum (Utah), 39.675


Balance Beam — Kara Eaker (Utah), 10.0


Floor Exercise — Grace McCallum (Utah), 9.925


Uneven Bars — Grace McCallum (Utah), 9.975


Vault — Jaedyn Rucker (Utah), 9.925

Utah finished with a score of 197.750, a major improvement from the 197.275 the team scored a week ago at home against LSU. Southern Utah finished second with a 196.175, followed by Utah State (195.800) and BYU (195.175).

Eaker’s perfect score earned her the event title on beam, while McCallum won the all-around, floor and bars titles (Jaedyn Rucker won the vault title, the event on which she is the reigning NCAA champion).

It was a signature performance at this early point in the season, a score that puts Utah on the same level as the best in the nation.

(Oklahoma scored a 197.925 Week 1, while Florida had a 197.750. The Gators scored a 197.825 Friday night, in a Week 2 win over Auburn).

“It is a subjective sport, right? With scores,” Utah head coach Tom Farden said. “But I did think we were more crisp this week. I thought we were better in a lot of areas this week. It showed. I was pleased with that.”

Especially with the Red Rocks’ beam rotation, which earned a 49.675 counting only scores of 9.90 or better.

“I don’t know what to say about balance beam,” Farden said. “It is probably the best balance beam I’ve seen. I keep saying that every year, but it is pretty incredible. It is jaw dropping. I don’t know how else to describe it besides poetry.”

Utah improved across the board, except for on vault where the team matched its Week 1 performance, but there remains an expectation for continued improvement.

“We actually feel this team is very, very good,” Farden said. “We are still not there and still have more to grow, so we will keep chipping away at this.”

Defining moment

With apologies to McCallum, whose routine on bars was the best performance of the competition through three events, no moment was more compelling or indicative of Utah’s excellence than Eaker’s showing on beam.

Earning the second perfect 10 of her young Utah career — a sophomore, Eaker missed much of her freshman season with a high ankle sprain — Eaker was, in a word, perfect.

“It was really exciting,” Eaker said. “I just really went up there wanting to do my personal best, kind of controlling what I could do and let everything else happen.”

Making the perfect score all the more impressive was that Eaker’s routine is different this year.

“New dismount, scores a 10. Really proud of that because last year she scored a 10 with a different dismount,” Farden said. “That was a monkey wrench thrown in things.

“We see 10s in practice (from her) all the time. I get to see 10s in practice every week. Fortunately we got to see one with 6,000 friends tonight so that was even cooler.”

McCallum nearly scored a perfect 10 herself with her routine on bars, finishing with a 9.975.

She herself felt she had room for improvement.

“There are always little areas I can improve on, toes or knees,” McCallum said, before jesting. “It was a little sad. I thought, ‘That judge thought it was good.’ I was proud of myself and really grateful for the score I got. But I was so close.”

McCallum’s comfort level with college gymnastics has clearly grown in her second season with Utah, to the Red Rocks’ benefit.

“Spending 15 weeks in an actual preseason, and not sleeping on a bus has helped,” Farden said. “Grace is a very routine oriented woman and she was out of routine all of the preseason last year. You are seeing her with a full preseason. This is her.”

Needs work

There weren’t any glaring mistakes for Utah this week, though there remains room for improvement, particularly on bars.

Outside of a strong leadoff performance by freshman Makenna Smith (9.875), and McCallum’s nearly flawless routine in the anchor spot, the Red Rocks’ showing on bars left something to be desired.

“They were a little too anxious and not quite what we saw in practice,” Farden said.

Routines by Sage Thompson and Maile O’Keefe — each scored a 9.80 — stood out especially, not being up to those gymnasts’ usual standards (O’Keefe is a national champion on bars, while Thompson is an All-American on the event).

Cristal Isa (9.850) had a solid bounce-back performance from Week 1, though, and Abby Brenner (9.850) was solid for the second consecutive week.

Outside of bars, the greatest room for improvement remains on vault and floor, where the Red Rocks counted only a pair of scores 9.90 or better.

Farden remains optimistic, however.

“Floor and vault were good,” he said. “We do need to keep increasing some artistry on floor. Vault was obviously a big success with five 10.0 vaults (competed). We have some more kids training it so we are excited about vault and where it is at.”

That’s exciting

Vault is the most encouraging event for Utah early on this season, in light of the team’s struggles on the event the last couple of years.

Utah is competing five vaults valued at 10.0 and all have been hit in one way or another in the last two weeks.

The Red Rocks have scored a 49.350 on vault in both meets this season, a run of consistency that simply hasn’t existed for the team in a few years.

“I think we just went into vault this year feeling really calm,” McCallum said. “I definitely did. I feel like I am actually doing a big girl vault. I think everybody is really calm going into it.

“We have the numbers under our belt. We know we can do it. And having five people that have a 10.0 vault also boosts your confidence and makes you want to do really good for your team.”

Farden credits the continued coaching of assistant coach Jimmy Pratt, who came to Utah ahead of last season, but is really starting to make his mark on the program now.

“Any time there is a coaching change, it takes time,” Farden said. “We basically have four coordinators and (Pratt) coordinates everything on vault.

“Last year, the athletes were like ‘This isn’t what we did last year.’ Athletes are naturally going to lean to what has worked for them and they don’t mean to have resistance towards new coaches, but they are trying to figure out what the coach wants and what works for them. It takes years to get all that together.

“They’ve had Carly (Dockendorf) as their beam coach for four or five years so they are pretty smooth over there. You can see that. And now, we are starting seeing it on vault with Jimmy.”

What about BYU, Utah State and Southern Utah?

The Best of Utah included three other teams and each had its moments.

Southern Utah finished second with another strong meet, improving on its performance from Week 1 at the Super 16 in Las Vegas.

The Flippin’ Birds were great on floor, registering a 49.350, with a rotation best showing by Karley McClain (9.925).

“We started the meet off by adding Kaylee Kho who scored very well last year at this meet. We were shocked when she fell but the way that the girls rallied after that was spectacular,” head coach Scott Bauman said in a release. “We are still working to figure out our sixth beam worker but the way the team came together tonight was amazing. ... Everyone on this team knows that they have to be on their game in order to compete and they continue to do that and it is making us better.” 

BYU also improved on its Week 1 performance, bumping up from a 193.775 to a 195.175, an improvement of 1.400 (a major leap in gymnastics).

Rebekah Bean-Ripley’s Barbie-inspired floor routine was a highlight, for which she earned 9.850, but Anyssa Alvardo led the Cougars with a 9.90 on bars.

“I’m really proud of these girls for their performances tonight, especially my bar team” head coach Guard Young said in a release. “Our floor team is just so much fun to watch, and you can tell they are gaining that confidence.

“I would love to see that same confidence translate over to the balance beam, so that is going to be our focus this week as we prepare for our first home meet.”

View Comments

As for Utah State, the Aggies kicked off their season with the Best of Utah, which served as new head coach Kristin White’s debut.

USU scored a 49 or better on three events — bars, beam and floor — and was in contention for second place throughout the competition.

Sofi Sullivan was the standout performer for the Aggies, scoring a 9.90 on beam.

“I am so proud of our team,” White said in a release. “To come into this environment with all of these fans was incredible. This team fought every step of the way, from the minute our staff was hired to start working with them, they’ve just been amazing, they’ve bought in, they’ve started to believe in the vision of this program and I couldn’t be prouder of the way that we’ve started this season tonight.” 

Join the Conversation
Looking for comments?
Find comments in their new home! Click the buttons at the top or within the article to view them — or use the button below for quick access.