#3 Utah Gymnastics Comes Up Short At #11 California
BERKELEY, Calif. – No. 3-ranked Utah Gymnastics suffered its first loss of the season Saturday night, falling to the No. 11-ranked California Golden Bears 197.525-197.275 at Haas Pavilion. Utah's first conference loss since the 2019 season moved the Utes to a 7-1 record overall and 3-1 mark in Pac-12 play.
Utah began the dual meet with an excellent opening routine on bars from Amelie Morgan, who posted a career-best 9.925. Alexia Burch followed with a 9.725, while Sage Thompson proved to be a force in the lineup once again with a 9.875. After a fall from Grace McCallum slowed the momentum down, Cristal Isa and Maile O'Keefe limited the damage to the rotation as the duo posted a 9.875 and 9.90, respectively.
Trailing 49.350-49.300, Jillian Hoffman posted a career-high 9.90 to get vault started and continue her excellent run in the leadoff spot. Cammy Hall added a 9.775 and Lucy Stanhope rolled in a 9.75 before a massive Yurchenko 1.5 flew in from Jaedyn Rucker to bring the rotation a spark. Rucker posted a meet-high 9.975 for the event win, which is her second vault title of the year. Burch followed with a 9.825, while McCallum got back on track with a 9.90 to end the rotation and put Utah at a 49.375 on vault.
The Utes still found themselves trailing at the halfway point, but with a strong surge on floor would go on to take the lead 148.200-148.050 after the third rotation. After losing Hoffman during floor warmups to an Achilles injury, Abby Paulson stepped into the leadoff position and earned a 9.90 to get the floor squad started.
Adrienne Randall posted a 9.875, which was followed by a 9.90 from Rucker to round out her night. After McCallum scored a 9.85, O'Keefe collected a 9.875 before Sydney Soloski matched a career-high 9.975 to put an exclamation point on the 49.525 floor score. Soloski's 9.975 earned her the floor win and marked her first win of the season.
Working with the narrow lead, Morgan scored her third-straight 9.90 on beam in the leadoff position. Burch collected a 9.875 in her first beam routine of the season, while Randall posted a 9.80 in the third position. Cal on the other hand was able to collect three 9.90s to begin its final rotation and put some pressure on the Utes.
The momentum for Utah slowed down after Paulson missed a connection in her beam routine and went on to score just a 9.575. Looking to drop the score, Isa was up next for the Utes and couldn't stay on the beam in her triple series and the uncharacteristic mistake from the elite beam worker would put the win out of reach for Utah as Cal's final two routines recorded hits. O'Keefe won her third-straight beam title with a 9.925 in the anchor position with the meet already decided.
The Red Rocks will return to the Jon M. Huntsman Center next Friday, Feb. 18, to take on No. 13 Oregon State. Utah will host the Beavers at 6 p.m. MT with the meet to be televised on the Pac-12 Networks. It will be Olympian night, Pride night, and Alumni night in Salt Lake City.