FORT WORTH — Twenty years from now, when someone flips through the virtual pages of Utah gymnastics’ record books, they won’t find Grace McCallum listed as one of the individual NCAA champions.
Her performance Thursday night in the second of two national semifinals won’t be among the best — i.e. highest scoring — all-around performances by a Red Rock. Her routines on floor exercise, uneven bars and vault won’t be memorialized as the best of her four-year career at Utah. Inevitably, what McCallum did inside Dickies Arena in the 2025 national semifinals will fade away over time.
But, with one competition remaining in her collegiate career, it should be remembered as the best performance she’s had as a Red Rock, pending what she does in Saturday’s national championship.
McCallum was that good for Utah when it mattered the most.
She finished as the national runner-up in the all-around with a 39.6750. Only Oklahoma’s Jordan Bowers was better.
She finished as the national runner-up on floor exercise with a 9.9500. Only UCLA’s Brooklyn Moors was better.
She finished as the national runner-up on the uneven bars with a 9.9625. Only UCLA’s Jordan Chiles was better.
And she finished as the national runner-up on vault (tied with Michigan State’s Sage Kellerman) with a 9.9500. Only LSU’s Kailin Chio was better.
Outside of a routine on balance beam that was less than her best, McCallum competed at highest level that NCAA gymnastics had to offer in 2025. But what made it really special were the circumstances.
Her floor routine capped off a rally from fourth place to first place by Utah. Her vault, the first one she’d stuck this season, enabled Utah to have a strong enough vault rotation to remain in the hunt after three rotations. And her bar routine sealed the win for Utah over rival UCLA, making the Red Rocks’ trip to the national championship all the sweeter.
“One of the mottos for our meet going into today was to fight all the way through,” she said. “From the very first routine to the very end. And I feel like that’s really what we did today. No matter what happened, what happened before us, we just went up to there, did our gymnastics and fought for every landing.”
McCallum especially.
Time and again, when the was pressure on, she delivered for Utah. Her vault may have been the most notable of her successes, though.
McCallum had struggled throughout the season to stick her landings, usually flying across the mat with too much power. As recently as the Salt Lake City NCAA regional final she struggled mightily. In the most important meet of Utah’s season, though, at a time when Utah badly needed a high-level vault, she stuck it cold.
“It felt pretty electric,” McCallum said. “All my hard work kind of paid off in that moment right there. It’s something we’ve really been working on in the gym, really like dialing in those landings. So for it to happen in the moment when it mattered most. I was just very, very happy.”
McCallum has had higher scoring meets in her career than what she did Thursday night. She has recorded perfect 10s on bars, beam and floor during her career. She will be remembered as one of the more talented gymnasts to go through Utah’s program over the years and she will always have the silver medal she won with Team USA in Tokyo in the 2021 Olympics.
It probably won’t be remembered this way but McCallum’s all-around performance against LSU, UCLA and Michigan State should be up there with her most notable career accomplishments. Given everything surrounding it, it was McCallum at her best as a Red Rock.
