Utah claims inaugural Pac-12 Gymnastics regular-season crown

SAN FRANCISCO - For the first time in the history of the conference, the eight schools decided to play in a traditional regular-season round-robin conference schedule. The Red Rocks remained undefeated after highly contested meets against UCLA and Washington the last two weeks on the road. Utah edged out victories in both meets by minor differences in points. Utah entered the match as one of the nation’s top-scoring teams, averaging 197.272 points per meet. 

In his fifth year as head coach at Utah, Tom Farden recorded his 100th career win at Utah on Sunday. With the victory, Utah is now 61-0-2 all-time against Washington. 

It came down to the final rotations, Utah fell behind the Huskies by 0.050. Utah was in familiar territory after the beam lineup has been put in pressure situations the last two road meets, and once again, the beam team pulled through with just enough to clinch the win. The clutch performance by Abby Paulson anchored the Red Rocks with 9.95 to leave the Huskies needing a 10.0 on the floor to tie, but their sixth gymnast scored a 9.925 to ensure a Utah victory. Missy Reinstadtler won the bars (9.925) and floor (9.975) event titles against Washington for her second and third event victories this season. Reinstadtler's 9.975 on the floor was a career-high. Kim Tessen won her third vault title of the season (9.925) and her ninth career.

The Red Rock finishes off the conference slate this weekend March 6 at home against Stanford for their "Pink Meet". 

The Pac-12 Gymnastics Championships will be held at the Maverik Center in West Valley City, Utah, on Saturday, March 21. Session 1 will begin at 1 p.m., followed by Session 2 at 6 p.m. Both sessions will air on Pac-12 Networks. Tickets are available at http://www.smithstix.com/.