Utah
Red Rocks win LA regional, qualify for record 47th straight national championship
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SALT LAKE CITY — The nation’s longest streak continues.
For the forty seventh straight season, the College of Utah girls’s gymnastics workforce clinched a spot within the nationwide championship — the one workforce within the nation to qualify for each nationwide championship in NCAA historical past.
The fifth-ranked Purple Rocks led wire-to-wire within the Los Angeles regional remaining and completed with a 198.050 rating to win the quad meet in opposition to No. 4 UCLA, No. 13 Missouri and Washington.
The Bruins, who made a robust push within the remaining two occasions of the evening — which included an ideal 10.0 from freshman Selena Harris on vault — completed with a 197.925 rating in second place and clinched the opposite spot within the nationwide championship from the LA regional.
Missouri stored the meet shut via three rotations, however could not get sufficient on the ultimate occasion of the evening and completed with a 197.600 rating. Washington, which claimed a spot within the remaining after a ranked Auburn workforce stumbled within the semifinal, had a troublesome evening making an attempt to maintain up with the three ranked groups and completed with a 195.650 rating to spherical out the meet.
Utah and UCLA will meet up with first-ranked Oklahoma and ninth-ranked Kentucky, who certified from the Norman, Oklahoma, regional, within the first spherical of the nationwide championship on April 13 in Fort Price, Texas.
The Purple Rocks opened up the meet with a robust vault lineup that set the tone for the evening.
Maile O’Keefe threw a career-best vault and scored a 9.925, and the Purple Rocks had been off and tumbling. Abby Brenner and Jillian Hoffman adopted it up with back-to-back 9.90 scores earlier than the reigning vault champion Jaedyn Rucker launched an ideal Yerchenko 1.5 that she caught completely to attain one other good 10.0 — her second straight and third this season on vault.
UCLA and Missouri completed the primary rotation tied with 49.400 scores to point how tight the best for the 2 spots within the regional could be on Saturday evening.
The Purple Rocks misplaced a little bit of floor on bars after every gymnast had some noticeable errors that stored the scores a bit decrease than what the workforce was anticipating after a robust opening occasion. With Cristal Isa left within the anchor spot, the Purple Rocks hadn’t scored something larger than a 9.875. Happily for the Purple Rocks, Isa rounded out the occasion with a 9.90.
Whereas the Purple Rocks did not have their strongest occasion, they maintained the lead, although Missouri went large with a robust flooring occasion to tie Utah on the halfway level of the meet. Missouri’s Hannah McCrary, Alisa Sheremeta, and Amari Celestine all scored a 9.90, and Jocelyn Moore completed with a 9.950 to place some stress on UCLA and Utah.
The meet arrange properly as Utah, which leads the nation on beam, and UCLA, which leads the nation on flooring, had been set to compete of their greatest occasions of the evening on the similar time. And neither workforce disillusioned.
It wasn’t the Purple Rocks’ greatest efficiency on beam, however Abby Paulson scored a 9.90 within the second spot and was adopted up by Kara Eaker’s rating 9.950 — a redemption rating after she fell of beam on her mount within the regional semifinal. Isa added a 9.875 earlier than O’Keefe delivered an almost good routine and scored a 9.950 to maintain the Purple Rocks forward.
However UCLA upped the stress and had all 5 of its counted scores at 9.90 or higher. Emma Malabuyo and Harris rating 9.90’s and had been adopted by Margzetta Frazier and Chae Campbell incomes a 9.950. However Jordan Chiles despatched Pauley Pavilion into pandemonium when she scored an ideal 10.0 to present the Bruins a 148.425 workforce rating — simply 0.025 off the lead from Utah going into the ultimate occasion.
The Bruins completed the evening on vault and did sufficient to clinch a spot within the nationwide championship earlier than Missouri or Utah completed its remaining occasion. Brooklyn Moors scored a 9.90, Harris obtained an ideal 10.0 that despatched the freshman into pleased tears, and Chiles rounded out the vent with a 9.90 rating of her personal. The one factor left was to see which workforce joined them in Fort Price.
Missouri did properly sufficient on bars to complete the evening, however didn’t report a rating that might deal with UCLA or what Utah did.
Utah’s Abby Brenner led off on flooring with a robust 9.875, but it surely was the bottom rating of the occasion as Jaylene Gilstrap and Paulson obtained back-to-back 9.90 scores that was adopted by Makenna Smith’s 9.950. Rucker and O’Keefe rounded out the evening with back-to-back 9.925 scores to carry Utah over UCLA and a win.
Workforce scores
No. 5 Utah
- Vault (49.575)
- Bars (98.925, 49.350)
- Beam (148.450, 49.525)
- Ground (198.050, 49.600)
No. 4 UCLA
- Bars (49.400)
- Beam (98.725, 49.325)
- Ground (148.425, 49.700)
- Vault (197.925, 49.500)
No. 13 Missouri
- Beam (49.400)
- Ground (98.925, 49.525)
- Vault (148.375, 49.450)
- Bars (197.600, 49.225)
Washington
- Ground (49.150)
- Vault (98.300, 49.150)
- Bars (147.200, 48.900)
- Beam (195.650, 48.450)
Particular person Purple Rocks scores
1st Rotation: Vault (49.575)
- Maile O’Keefe: 9.925
- Abby Brenner: 9.900
- Jillian Hoffman: 9.900
- Makenna Smith: 9.850
- Jaedyn Rucker: 10.0
- Jaylene Gilstrap: 9.825
2nd Rotation: Bars (49.350)
- Amelie Morgan: 9.850
- Makenna Smith: 9.875
- Abby Brenner: 9.850
- Sage Thompson: 9.875
- Maile O’Keefe: 9.825
- Cristal Isa: 9.900
third Rotation: Beam (49.525)
- Amelie Morgan: 9.800
- Abby Paulson: 9.900
- Kara Eaker: 9.950
- Cristal Isa: 9.875
- Maile O’Keefe: 9.950
- Jaylene Gilstrap: 9.850
4th Rotation: Ground (49.600)
- Abby Brenner: 9.875
- Jaylene Gilstrap: 9.900
- Abby Paulson: 9.900
- Makenna Smith: 9.950
- Jaedyn Rucker: 9.925
- Maile O’Keefe: 9.925