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Utah's Burch And Soloski Take Home Pac-12 Weekly Awards

Sydney Soloski and Alexia Burch, the Red Rocks top two performers from this past week's meet against UCLA, have won Pac-12 weekly awards. Soloski was named the Specialist of the Week while Burch was honored with the Coaches' Choice award

When looking back on No. 3 Utah's 197.225-197.100 victory over its Pac-12 rival UCLA, ranked No. 14 in the country, there were two routines by the Red Rocks that stand out above the rest.

Seniors Sydney Soloski and Alexia Burch essentially saved the competition when they both delivered meet-altering routines, one coming in the first rotation and one coming in the final rotation.

Due to their prowess and success, Soloski and Burch have won Pac-12 weekly awards. Soloski was named the Specialist of the Week while Burch received the Coaches' Choice award. It's the second time each of them have received that weekly award.

Burch continued her run of success when she notched the highest the score of the meet with her 9.975 vault in Utah's first rotation. 

It was particularly impressive considering the Red Rocks were in need of a big number after Cammy Hall recorded a 9.625 on the previous routine. That completely set the tone for Utah the rest of the meet as a team that wasn't going to back down from its arch-rivals.

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With Burch helping save the Red Rocks early in the meet, it was Soloski's time to save the team at the end of the meet.

So when the Red Rocks needed a phenomenal routine from their anchor in the floor rotation, Soloski didn't scoff, cower or breakdown at the thought. Rather, she focused and found her swag, doing what she always does — be flawless.

With the Red Rocks trailing by .050, Soloski's 9.925 score in the final routine of the competition was enough to lift Utah to its 7-1 start and 4-0 conference record.

"Sydney was the MVP tonight for many reasons and she just, through her leadership and then also being able to get it done in a decisive moment, it just speaks volumes for her confidence and for her ability to command her gymnastics," Utah head coach Tom Farden said. "I really enjoyed watching that particular floor routine; I thought it was very spunky."

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Utah will now turn its attention to another top-10 opponent when it hosts No. 9 Cal on Friday. Meet is set for 7 p.m. and will be televised on the Pac-12 Network. The Golden Bears are coming off a victory over Oregon State in which they posted a season-high 197.425, just .050 off the Red Rocks top score of the season.

“We definitely feel like that wasn’t our best performance,” Farden said. “However, love the fight our athletes never gave up and had each other’s back all the way through. We hit enough to get out with the win and proud of the team’s hunger to continue to fight to the end.”

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