Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — It was the meet everyone anticipated since the schedule was announced.
A roaring crowd of 15,558 fans packed the Huntsman Center to watch the two best Pac-12 gymnastics teams battle. But in the end, No. 2 UCLA outscored No. 4 Utah 198.025-197.625.
UCLA’s Kyla Ross won the all-around with a 39.775. MyKayla Skinner’s season-high 39.75 came second. Skinner tied for first on beam (9.95) and floor (9.925) with teammate Sydney Soloski, while MaKenna Merrell-Giles tied for first on vault (9.95).
Though the Red Rocks came up short in a meet they wanted to snatch from the Bruins, the competition left them feeling good about where they're headed.
“That was a heck of an outing,” Utah co-head coach Tom Farden said. “That was our most complete meet. Overall, I’m super proud of the team for tough competition.”
“This meet was definitely a big one, but we took a big step in the right direction,” Kari Lee said.
Utah put on its best show, scoring season highs on beam and in the team total, but fell short of tying its season best on vault and bars.
The atmosphere grew rowdy quick as soon as Alexia Burch nailed her vault in the lineup’s third spot — the Huntsman erupted. Burch earned 9.85 and the scores built from there.
Merrell-Giles had a phenomenal 9.95, and Skinner and Kim Tessen responded with 9.925 and 9.90, respectively. Utah earned a 49.45 team score on the event, trailing UCLA’s 49.55 bars set, which was highlighted by Ross’ 10.0.
The teams swapped events in the second rotation, and Skinner impressed with a team-high 9.95. She was the lone Utah gymnast to break a score above 9.90, but Tessen and Merrell-Giles were close with 9.875s. At the end of the rotation, Utah lost some ground as UCLA had a 98.975-98.85 advantage.
Beam was next for the Red Rocks.
After shaking up the lineup for rather shaky performances this season on the event, the pressure was on for Utah if it wanted to keep up with its competitor.
With Lee (9.825) solidifying her spot as the beam team’s lead off, Utah was off and rolling. Skinner scored 9.95, which fans disapproved with boos thinking she should’ve received a 10.0, while Burch and Adrienne Randall posted 9.875s.
“I felt like I got more in my zone,” Burch said. “I wasn’t thinking about beam. It felt really good to hit a routine like I do in practice.”
“It was really nice to see beam come out like that,” Farden added.
The entire lineup hit its routines as they have in practice and earned a season-best 49.375. But UCLA kept its lead with one rotation to go, 148.475-148.225.
The 0.25-point difference normally wouldn’t be hard for the Red Rocks to make up in most meets, but against the defending national champions it would be more of a challenge. Both teams matched their first two scores, then came a fall from UCLA’s Madison Kocian. The hiccup didn’t affect the Bruins as the second half of the lineup responded with 9.90, 9.95 and 9.925.
Meanwhile, Soloski earned 9.925 on floor in the lineup's fourth spot. Things felt like they were going in the right direction for the Red Rocks, but Merrell-Giles' stepped out of bounds and scored just 9.725, forcing Utah to count Randall's 9.775.
Skinner finished the meet with an exclamation point. Her routine looked clean and the crowd went wild as she saluted at the end.
“It’s awesome. She was in her element and did a nice job,” Farden said. “As a coach, I’m super proud because she was out for a few weeks. I thought she looked fantastic out there.”
The judges disagreed and gave her a 9.925 to match the score of UCLA’s Katelyn Ohashi, who ranks first in the country on floor. As the crowd loudly booed again for Skinner’s score, she was visibly upset with the judges, throwing her hands at them as if saying, “What else can I do?”
“Obviously I was sad,” Skinner said. “But I’m still happy I can go out there and put out a big floor routine to help the team. Competing in the Huntsman is literally my favorite thing to do. To be back out there and feel the emotions, the intensity and getting all fired up is what I love to feel.”
The Red Rocks will get that feeling one more time this season when they take on No. 8 Michigan next Saturday at 2 p.m. MST for Senior Day.
