FORT WORTH, Texas ā It wasn’t the Red Rocks’ day when it mattered most.
And it only got worse after the NCAA women’s gymnastics championship concluded Saturday afternoon. The Red Rocks finished the meet in third place ā for a fifth straight season ā but a late review moved Missouri into third, pushing Utah into fourth place after scoring a 197.2375.
No. 2 Oklahoma, which missed out on the championship meet last season, won their second title in three seasons with a 198.0125 score. The Sooners edged out No. 5 UCLA, who finished with a 197.6125 score, for the win, while No. 7 Missouri finished in third with a 197.2500.
Two days after scoring the highest all-around score among all competitors during the semifinal round, Utah had too many missteps on championship Saturday to challenge for a title.
The Red Rocks opened the afternoon on bars, where the team used a season-high performance on Thursday to advance to the championship meet, and found itself in an early hole after Ashley Glynn took a big step on her dismount in the second spot to score a 9.6875.
But the remaining gymnasts answered the call and each scored higher than the next, starting with Avery Neff’s 9.8250 and finishing with Grace McCallum’s impressive 9.950 routine to finish with a 49.450.
Oklahoma and UCLA were even better, though, to start and tied with a 49.6125 in their respective events. The Sooners, specifically, scored no lower than a 9.90 in each of their counted routines.
It was shaping up to be a tight meet.
But then Utah’s beam team couldn’t keep up, essentially putting the Red Rocks in a tough position for the remainder of the meet. Amelie Morgan had a big balance check after her acro series in the leadoff spot, leaving the senior with a 9.6875.
It got worse, though, when McCallum fell off the beam after an acro series, forcing the Red Rocks to count Morgan’s score. It was a rare fall in a pivotal time for the former Olympian.
Utah made up a little ground on floor, with three gymnasts scoring a 9.90 or higher, but McCallum, again, had a slight misstep. After her second tumbling pass, McCallum stepped out of bounds, leaving Utah without one of their highest scorers to make up ground.
By the time the team closed out on vault, the writing was on the wall ā even though Utah had a chance to get to at least second.
Vault, though, proved to be the demise.
Neff managed a career-high 9.9750 in the third spot, but Glynn finished with a 9.70 after a big step back and then Zoe Johnson’s hand slipped on the table and she landed on her back.
Team scores
No. 2 Oklahoma
- Beam: 49.6125
- Floor: 99.2000 (49.5875)
- Vault: 148.6375 (49.4375)
- Bars: 198.0125 (49.3750)
No. 4 Utah
- Bars: 49.4500
- Beam: 98.6375 (49.1875)
- Floor: 148.1125 (49.4750)
- Vault: 197.2375 (49.1250)
No. 5 UCLA
- Floor: 49.6125
- Vault: 98.9000 (49.2875)
- Bars: 148.3000 (49.4000)
- Beam: 197.6125 (49.3125)
No. 7 Missouri
- Vault: 49.2000
- Bars: 98.3750 (49.1750)
- Beam: 147.7625 (49.3875)
- Floor: 197.2500 (49.4875)
Red Rocks scores
1st Rotation: Bars (49.4500)
- Makenna Smith: 9.8875
- Ashley Glynn: 9.6875
- Avery Neff: 9.8250
- Amelie Morgan: 9.8750
- Ella Zirbes: 9.9125
- Grace McCallum: 9.9500
2nd Rotation: Beam (49.1875)
- Amelie Morgan: 9.6875
- Makenna Smith: 9.8750
- Grace McCallum: 9.2875
- Avery Neff: 9.8500
- Ana Padurariu: 9.9000
- Elizabeth Gantner: 9.8750
3rd Rotation: Floor (49.4750)
- Ashley Glynn: 9.8750
- Ella Zirbes: 9.9000
- Avery Neff: 9.9125
- Jaylene Gilstrap: 9.9000
- Makenna Smith: 9.8875
- Grace McCallum: 9.7875
4th Rotation: Vault (49.1250)
- Jaylene Gilstrap: 9.7750
- Grance McCallum: 9.8250
- Avery Neff: 9.9750
- Ashley Glynn: 9.7000
- Makenna Smith: 9.8500
- Zoe Johnson: 8.7500