Red Rocks Set To Shine In Primetime Against Pac-12 Rival UCLA
With the eyes of the nation watching, No. 3 Utah (6-1, 3-0 Pac-12) will have the opportunity to further cement its status as a legit national title contender.
The team standing in the Red Rocks way is longtime Pac-12 rival UCLA (4-0, 3-0 Pac-12), a perennial national title contender who's undefeated and ranked No. 14 in the country. They'll square off on Friday night at the Jon M. Huntsman Center, beginning at 7 p.m. and televised on ESPNU.
Prior to the bye week, Utah is coming off three consecutive dominating performances when they broke the coveted 197-point barrier in victories over Arizona, Washington and No. 16 Arizona State.
They also swept the conference weekly awards in two of those three weeks, with Maile O'Keefe becoming the rising star after being named the Pac-12 Gymnast of the Week both times. She's won the award three times this season.
She won her third all-around title of the season after scoring her second-straight 39.525, narrowly edging out Arizona State's Hannah Scharf’s 39.475. O'Keefe finished with career-highs in vault (9.900) and floor (9.925).
“Maile was stunning on floor exercise,” Utah head coach Tom Farden said following the Arizona State meet. “I think her performance quality continues to get more confident as the season goes on.”
Already with a perfect 10 score on the balance beam, O’Keefe ranks first in the Pac-12 on beam and all-around. She is No. 2 in the nation on beam and No. 7 in the all-around, and only getting better according to Farden.
Maile O'Keefe, Utah Gymnastics — Courtesy of Utah Athletics
But the Red Rocks are much more than a one woman show.
Alexia Burch has received two Pac-12 weekly awards this season, but it was the first in her career time she received the Specialist of the Week award after her performance on vault against the Sun Devils.
She posted a career-high 9.975 against Arizona State, even receiving a perfect from one judge, when she stuck her landing following her Yurchenko 1.5. That score not only helped push the Red Rocks to its highest vault team score of the season (49.475), it's tied for the second highest vault score in the nation, behind only a perfect 10.
“Lexi knew as soon as she hit that table that she let that one loose,” Farden said. “I thought it was going to be a 10. That is how impressed we were.”
Alexia Burch, Utah Gymnastics — Courtesy of Utah Athletics
Abby Paulson and Jaedyn Rucker have also won conference superlatives this season.
Rucker posted a career-high 9.90 on floor and tied her career-high 9.875 on vault, helping the Red Rocks claim season-highs in both events. Blessed with extreme power, Rucker is finally showing she's capable of harnessing that power and putting it towards a much more consistent approach.
Paulson had the best meet of her career against the Huskies three weeks ago.
She posted season highs in all three events she competed in, all while matching two career-high marks in her first ever specialist of the week award.
Her beam routine was something special as well as she finished with a 9.950, even receiving a perfect 10 from on judge — a special feat considering she followed O'Keefe's routine.
Paulson finished with a career-high tying marks of 9.850 on bars and a 9.900 score on floor — all three of her scores counted for the Utes.
Last but not least, a major part of Utah's success has been the proven chops of veterans Sydney Soloski and Cristal Isa.
Isa has been nearly as good as O'Keefe in the all-around for most of the season, challenging one another to be better.
Soloski is the floor queen, one of the top performers in the nation on the floor and the true anchor of the Red Rocks.
Sydney Soloski, Utah Gymnastics — Courtesy of Utah Athletics
All of them will have to be on top of their game when the Bruins come to town.
UCLA has yet to hit its stride this season but is still doing enough to keep on winning. Having yet to break the 197-point barrier, the Bruins just haven't put together a full meet yet but they've shown signs of life the past couple of weeks.
Margzetta Frazier captured her first all-around title of the year with a season-high 39.325 in last week's victory over Washington. Chae Campbell took home victories in the vault and beam last week as well.
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