The University of Utahâs womenâs gymnastics team isnât all that used to losing. Especially not in Pac-12 Conference competition.
It happens, sure, but year after year the Red Rocks have been the class of the conference since joining in 2012, particularly the last few years.
Saturday afternoon in Berkeley, California, Utah may have been unseated as the preeminent Pac-12 power, though, in this the final year of the conference.
In a showdown between top 5 teams â No. 3 Cal and No. 4 Utah â the Red Rocks came up short, losing to the Bears 198.100 to 197.700. Cal was the better team on multiple events â uneven bars and vault â while proving equal to Utah on floor exercise.
Cal sophomore eMjae Frazier was the best gymnast in the meet, winning the all-around title plus three other events titles â bars, floor and balance beam.
Only two Red Rocks â Ashley Glynn and Jaedyn Rucker â came away with some hardware, tying for the event title on vault with a pair of Cal gymnasts (Mya Lauzon and Kyen Mayhew).
With the loss, Utah now trails Cal in the race for the Pac-12 regular season title, a prize the Utes have claimed the last four years. And with only one more conference meet to go (at Arizona on Friday) Utah will need Cal to lose to Stanford on March 10 in order to get a share of the title.
As such, it was a disappointing outing for the Red Rocks, who expect to win conference championships â regular season and postseason â year after year.
âNot the total outcome we were hoping for today,â Utah head coach Carly Dockendorf said.
Wins and losses donât tell the whole story in gymnastics, however, and though the Red Rocks lost, they left California in better position than when they arrived.
With the score of 197.700, Utah improved its national qualifying score (NQS) which determines rankings during the regular season and postseason seeding.
Moreover, Utah withstood the absence of two notable gymnasts â Amelie Morgan and Makenna Smith â for most of the meet and still managed to compete at or near the same level of the Bears, who are a genuine national title threat this year.
âA pretty decent road score for us,â Dockendorf said. âI love that the team fought to the very end. We didnât give up. We definitely gave some tenths (of a point) away on our bars and our landings, and also on vault. … We made a lot of lineup changes as the meet was unfolding. We made a lineup change on three events. A lot of adjusting had to happen today and I was just proud that our team stayed focused throughout the meet.â
Utah lost the meet early.
As mentioned by Dockendorf, the Red Rocks left something to be desired on both bars and vault. Landings in particular were less than Utah wanted, with hops and steps the norm.
In the meantime, Cal had a standout performance on bars with three gymnasts â Frazier, Gabby Perea and Madelyn Williams â closing out the rotation with consecutive 9.975s.
It was that rotation that won the meet for the Bears. Utah outperformed Cal the second half of the competition, but the Bearsâ prowess on bars, coupled with Utahâs early mistakes, proved too much for the Red Rocks to overcome.
âWe definitely need to be more disciplined with our execution,â Dockendorf said.
Even with those miscues, Utah was in the competition late. That was in no small part to the teamâs floor lineup.
Across the board â save for a notable poor outing from Grace McCallum â Utah was excellent on floor, counting a low score of 9.875 from Abby Paulson.
Maile OâKeefe, Ella Zirbes, Jaylene Gilstrap and Jaedyn Rucker all competed well as Utah made clear again that it is a floor team this season.
âFloor is the one event where we had the least amount of lineup changes from last year,â Dockendorf said. âI think there is a lot of confidence and experience coming into that lineup and I think our performance quality is elevated this year and it is reflecting in our scores for sure.â
Utahâs effort on floor didnât prove enough to overcome Cal, but it put the Red Rocks in a position to win if the Bears had made mistakes and it gave Utah the boost it needed to come away with a notable road score.
Makenna Smith had been one of Utahâs most consistent competitors this season, but after stumbling on her vault landing, the sophomore was pulled from the lineup the rest of the night (she was slated to compete in the all-around).
It wasnât anything too serious, Dockendorf noted. Smithâs back flared up during the week and after her struggles on vault Utahâs coaching staff decided to play things safe after it flared up again.
As a result, Camie Winger and Jaedyn Rucker both had to serve as emergency replacements and both did exceptionally well.
Rucker scored a 9.90 on floor in place of Smith, a step in the right direction for the fifth-year senior.
âI was extremely proud of Jaedyn,â Dockendorf said. âShe wasnât scheduled to be in the lineup today, but with Makennaâs back flaring up it was a last-minute change. Jaedyn has been working so hard in practice and for her to go out there and do a normal Jaedyn routine was huge tonight.â
Winger, meanwhile, was no less impressive filling in on beam.
She led off the rotation â one she has not regularly competed in â and earned a 9.850, setting the stage for a strong outing by Utah.
All as a true freshman.
âCamie loves to compete,â Dockendorf said. âThat is where she thrives. … The more pressure the more she loves it. She is really a utility gymnast and what I mean by that is she can kind of go anywhere in any lineup in any space and still be able to go and perform.â
In order to capitalize on Wingerâs innate traits, Dockendorf didnât tell her sheâd be competing in place of Smith until the very last moment.
âI didnât want her thinking about it the entire meet,â Dockendorf said. âI knew that Cam would be able to handle it.â
As noted, Utah was not perfect in the meet. Bars and vault â thought solid rotations â were not up to the standard that Utah needs them to be in order to compete with the best teams in the country, which Cal is.
On bars, the miscues were primarily landing related. Gymnasts showed a lack of patience when holding landings, which led to steps forward and back. There were also rushed handstands and leg separation on transitions between the high and low bars, mistakes that can be found in any NCAA meet week after week, only Utah had too many of them.
It was a similar story on vault, with steps taken as gymnasts tried a little too hard to stick their landings. Or in the case of Smith, were hampered by injury.
Utah wasnât perfect on floor or beam, either, with notable mistakes from McCallum and Elizabeth Ganter on floor and beam, respectively.
But it was bars and vault where the Red Rocks lost the meet and where they will need to be better going forward, particularly come the postseason.
âOn bars, we left some points out there,â Dockendorf said. âSame as on vault. Absolutely if we want to contend for the national title and Pac-12 title, we are going to have to clean up some details still.
âI mentioned earlier this week that that was going to be important for us to focus on and some of the mistakes we saw tonight are mistakes we havenât been seeing.â
Utah lost. Cal was the better team. But the Red Rocks were competitive on the road against a team they will likely see again a couple more times this year.
Utah improved its NQS, all while handling unexpected changes in lineups and the absence of Morgan, who remains in England for the time being while she vies for a spot on Team Great Britain for the Paris Olympics this summer.
Really, Utah proved capable of competing with an elite team while not at its best, which can only bode well for the future.
âIt is going to fire them up,â Dockendorf said. âThey know that we left a lot out there. Multiple lineup changes today with Amelie out and Makenna didnât do all her events and Grace didnât do her normal stuff today.
âThose are all excuses, which I am not going to use for our performance today, but (today) definitely is something we can think about for our potential come postseason.â
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Gov. Spencer Cox has called the Utah Legislature into a special session to address redistricting and election-related issues, and repeal Utah’s collective bargaining ban after it qualified for a vote on the 2026 ballot.
The call was anticipated, but beyond election deadlines, the agenda items signal that lawmakers will address the appellate process when they gather on Tuesday, Dec. 9, at 6 p.m. The GOP-controlled legislature is currently anticipating embarking on an appeals process after a Third District judge struck down a redistricted map drawn by lawmakers and put in place one crafted by an expert for anti-gerrymandering groups.
Lawmakers will address “amendments to court rules related to appeals by government officers or governmental entities and appeals of election, voting, and redistricting cases; and clarify that the Utah Supreme Court has exclusive and original appellate jurisdiction over election, voting, and redistricting cases, to address the appeals process for a post-judgment motion on attorney fees in such cases, and address statutory inconsistencies,” according to the Governor’s call.
As reported exclusively by ABC4, lawmakers will push back filing deadlines and consider a joint resolution about the “constitutional authority” of the courts. Utah’s GOP leaders have been highly critical of Judge Dianna Gibson since the ruling in late August, some even suggesting impeachment.
The repeal of the anti-collective bargaining ban, known by its bill name H.B. 267, comes after months of speculation that a repeal was in the works after public labor unions gathered more than enough signatures at lightning speed for a referendum to put the question to voters in 2026.
The coalition labor groups, called Protect Utah Workers, supported the repeal in a statement after the call was made public.
“The expected repeal belongs to the Utahns who stood up and signed the referendum,” the coalition said. “More than 320,000 people who signed the petition sent a clear message that public workers deserve a voice on the job. The coalition thanks legislative leadership for respecting the will of the people. This anticipated repeal preserves the rights of firefighters, police, nurses, public educators, transportation workers, airport staff, and all other critical public workers who improve the lives of Utahns every day,” said a spokesperson for the group.
Here is the complete list of agenda items for Tuesday’s special session:
Oklahoma City has dominated the NBA. They hope to continue to do so on Sunday against the Utah Jazz, the second time the Thunder have played in Salt Lake City this season. In the first meeting, OKC overcame a red-hot shooting night to eventually blow out the Jazz after Utah put themselves in a great position following the opening frame.
In that game, the Thunder were short handed, much like they will be in this contest. So far this season, Oklahoma City has missed multiple games from All-NBA swingman Jalen Williams, Rising Star big man Chet Holmgren, Sharpshooter Isaiah Joe, Top Bench Bucket Getter Aaron Wiggins, Defensive-Aces Alex Caruso and Lu Dort, veteran Kenrich Williams and starting big man Isaiah Hartenstein.
For this Sunday affair, the Oklahoma City Thunder will see their superstar, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, miss his first game of the season with elbow bursitis. Joining him in street clothes will be Joe, Caruso, Dort and Hartenstein.
This will make Mark Daigneault’s job a bit trickier but the OKC Thunder are still favored to win this road contest. Here is what to watch for tonight.
Oklahoma City is having to navigate its first game of the season without superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. To take an automatic 30 points out of the lineup will be hard to replace; he has been the lone constant in this season for the short-handed Bricktown Ballers. This will take Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren stepping up in a big way in the scoring department to replace that production.
The big question remains the Thunder’s depth, Oklahoma City will have to shuffle their rotation and likely include lineups without any of Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams or Holmgren on the court. How will OKC handle that outcome on the offensive end?
This game will likely come down to who performs the best shooting from distance, the great equalizer in basketball and if either team is red-hot it can help mask deficiencies for both clubs.
Game Information
The Oklahoma City Thunder are hoping to cap off a 3-0 week with a win tonight over the Utah Jazz. The Thunder then get to enjoy two more days off before opening up the knockout round of the NBA Cup tournament on Dec. 10 against the Phoenix Suns. That game holds the right for the winner to advance to Vegas and continue their pursuit of the cup championship and cash prize at the end. Oklahoma City sits 22-1, two games shy of the Warriors’ 24-1 start way back in 2015-16.
Stay tuned to Thunder on SI for complete coverage of this Oklahoma City Thunder season as the Bricktown Ballers continue to make history this season.
CORVALLIS — Never quite able to pull far enough away for comfort despite a 22-point lead in the first half Saturday, Oregon State men’s basketball beat Southern Utah 81-70 at Gill Coliseum.
The Beavers (5-5) were led by Dez White with 20 points and Johan Munch with 16.
The Thunderbirds (4-7) were the worst team OSU has faced this season in terms of NET ranking at No. 343.
“That’s as good as we’ve seen them play on tape this year,” OSU coach Wayne Tinkle said of Southern Utah. “They did a lot of really good things, played their tails off, caused us some frustration. We did a lot of really good things in spurts, but it wasn’t as good of a 40-minute effort as we need.”
The win was Oregon State’s second straight, coming on the heels of a five-game losing streak.
White was red-hot from the start, hitting his first three attempts to give OSU a 13-6 lead. He had 16 points in the first half alone.
Noah Amenhauser came in at center and forced his will, scoring two straight baskets to make it 17-6 Beavers.
Turnovers and poor transition defense hurt OSU as the first half progressed, though, and Southern Utah rattled off a 6-0 run to cut the OSU lead to 20-16.
“We didn’t keep the ball in front of us,” Tinkle said. “They got downhill, got to the paint at will. In our zone, we didn’t have enough communication or urgency to match. And when we don’t communicate and see our area and the ball, we have breakdowns. They still got to the rim against zone a couple of times and we lost shooters.”
But as the Beavers picked up the pace, they blew the game wide open.
Ja’Quavis Williford — playing his third game since returning from injury — hit two quick buckets to make it 25-16 Beavers. OSU would extend that to 45-23 at one point, fueled by transition play and White’s confident scoring at all three levels.
OSU is dealing with both injuries and illness for key players: Yaak Yaak is still reconditioning after being out for the entire Paradise Jam tournament; Matija Samar is close to being back from a sprained MCL, and the Beavers are hoping to have him next week; and Keziah Ekissi is recovering from an illness that has kept him sidelined.
The Thunderbirds finished the half strong, going on a 7-0 run to cut it to 45-30 at the break.
While OSU came out in the second half sluggish in the early going, Munch powered to the basket on three straight possessions to get the lead up to 55-38 with 13:45 to go.
OSU kept the lead around 12-14 as the second half rolled along, but Tinkle’s frustration was evident throughout the game — primarily in response to defensive breakdowns leading to easy baskets for the Thunderbirds.
OSU led 65-51 at the 9:40 mark. Southern Utah got as close as 68-59 with just under seven minutes to go.
The Beavers picked up the defensive effort down the stretch, including a Munch block. OSU was able to pull out a double-digit victory in the end, but late turnovers and a lack of urgency on offense from the Beavers almost made it interesting as Southern Utah hit its open outside shots.
“We are a long ways off,” Tinkle said. “Defensively, we play stretches of really good defense, but we’ve got to do a good job for 40. Offensively, I think we’re getting more comfortable these last couple games in understanding how important it is to get turns of the ball and not go 1-on-1.
“When we go 1-on-1, that’s when we turn it over, take bad shots, and shoot a poor percentage. And we carry that frustration over to the defensive end.”
Next game: Oregon State (5-5) vs. Montana State (4-5)
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