FORT WORTH — If Grace McCallum, Avery Neff or any other Red Rock hopes to win an individual national championship this season, the scores to beat have now been set.
Scores across both of Thursday’s national semifinals at the NCAA gymnastics championships determine individual national champions. The gymnasts with the highest score on each event and in the all-around competition — across both meets — earning national titles.
These are the high scores that were registered in the first semifinal Thursday:
- All-around — 39.7125 (from Oklahoma’s Jordan Bowers).
- Balance beam — 9.9875 (from Missouri’s Helen Hu).
- Floor exercise — 9.9500 (from Bowers and her OU teammate Faith Torrez).
- Uneven bars — 9.9375 (from Bowers, Missouri’s Mara Titarsolej, Florida’s Leanne Wong and Alyssa Arana).
- Vault — 9.9000 (from Florida’s Danie Ferris).
At the very least, Utah gymnasts will have to tie those scores to win a share of a national title, unless the scores in the evening semifinal top what has already been put on display.
Utah gymnastics has an impressive legacy of individual national championships, won over the 50 years the program has been around.
Sixteen Red Rocks have won at least one NCAA title, with eight Utah gymnastics winning multiple individual championships during their careers.
Here’s the list:
- Sue Stednitz — all-around champion and beam champion (1982).
- Elaine Alfano — vault champion (1982, 1983 and 1985).
- Megan McCunniff (Marsden) — all-around champion (1983 and 1984) and vault champion (1984).
- Lisa Mitzel — floor champion (1985).
- Missy Marlowe — all-around champion, bars champion and floor champion (1992); also beam champion twice (1991 and 1992).
- Kristen Kenoyer — vault champion (1992).
- Sandy Woolsey — bars champion (1994).
- Summer Reid — beam champion (1996 and 1997).
- Angie Leonard — bars champion (1999).
- Theresa Kulikowski — all-around champion (1999) and beam champion (2001).
- Kristina Baskett — bars champion (2006).
- Ashley Postell — beam champion (2007).
- Georgia Dabritz — bars champion (2015).
- MyKayla Skinner — floor champion (2017) and vault champion (2018).
- Maile O’Keefe — all-around champion and beam champion (2023); also bars and floor champion (2021).
- Jaedyn Rucker — vault champion (2022).
Red Rocks fans have been a little spoiled over the last decade with individual championships.
Between Dabritz, O’Keefe, Skinner and Rucker, Utah has won eight individual titles since 2015. By way of comparison, from 2005 to 2014 Utah had only two individual NCAA champions with a title apiece — Baskett and Postell.
From 1995 to 2004 Utah had five individual NCAA titles, led by two from Kulikowski.
From 1985 to 1994 the Red Rocks won nine individual NCAA titles, led by Marlowe with five.
