Estimated read time: 5-6 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 Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information.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 — The sun is shining on the University of Utah campus on a Monday afternoon that feels like spring in Salt Lake City. When you step inside the Dumke Gymnastics Center, where the school’s gymnastics team trains, it also feels like the light is shining.
It’s two days after the Red Rocks punched their ticket to nationals for the 44th consecutive year. The student-athletes are preparing for a team meeting to go over the logistics of the biggest meet of the season, the national semifinal which takes place Friday, April 19.
They’re looking forward to planning their trip — learning when they arrive, where they’ll stay, what they’ll eat. But most importantly, they’re excited to compete against the best gymnastics programs in the country.
“I love nationals,” senior MaKenna Merrell-Giles said. “It’s so fun.”
Perhaps what makes this year’s trip to nationals a little more fun isn’t keeping the program’s streak in qualifying for national competition. You see, while it’s impressive that the Red Rocks have qualified for nationals 44 straight years, it hasn’t come easy. And it certainly wasn’t easy this past weekend at regionals.
With one rotation left to secure a spot at nationals, Utah was facing something it had never dealt with before. Junior MyKayla Skinner suffered her first fall in her collegiate career.
After an NCAA record 161 consecutively hit routines, Skinner proved to be human, making a rare error. As the last Utah competitor to go up on bars, she slipped from the high bar on her release move, causing the crowd, team and fans at home to gasp, not believing their eyes. The mishap offered Minnesota an opportunity to gain ground for second place at the Baton Rogue regional and the last spot to qualify for nationals. Utah had a mere 0.125 lead heading into the last rotation.
“I think Myk might have been thinking ahead, thinking ‘What if we don’t make it?’” senior Kari Lee said. “Anything could happen at that point.”
That’s not what her teammates were thinking, though. Co-head coach Tom Farden pulled the team together and reminded Skinner that it was OK; everyone makes mistakes. He told the beam team, which was up next to finish the meet, that they “needed to fight until the end.”
“He said it didn’t matter what happened, we just had to go out and do normal beam,” Merrell-Giles said.
“We were on that beam the day before and had a pretty good day,” sophomore Sydney Soloski said. “We just had to go up there, survive and stay on the beam.”
Ready to go, Lee started off the beam lineup, telling herself it was all or nothing and knowing she had to set the tone for her teammates.
“There’s always pressure to be a leadoff on an event that we were struggling on in the beginning of the season,” Lee said. “When I got moved to the leadoff position, I took it as an honor that the team and coaches had trust in me that I could do it.”
Knowing that her team had confidence in her gave Lee the confidence she could get the job done. It showed as she attacked her routine. Lee came off the beam with a 9.90, lighting a fire that would ignite the beam team. She sighed with relief. But the most nerve-wracking part would come as she watched the rest of the lineup.
“There was nothing else I could do but watch five other teammates go,” Lee said.
Next up was sophomore Alexia Burch who reeled in a 9.825, then Soloski who tied her career best with a 9.875 and freshman Adrienne Randall with a 9.75.
“Honestly, I was the calmest I’ve been going into that beam routine than I have been all season,” Soloski said. “I knew (Minnesota) was on our heels, but I saw Kari get a 9.90, then Lexi hit a really good routine, so I felt pretty at ease.”
Soloski laughed as she admitted she watched every Utah and Minnesota score during the last rotation. Meanwhile, Merrell-Giles had no idea where the Red Rocks stood.
“I knew it was going to be close. We did really well on floor and vault — bars wasn’t our best,” Merrell-Giles said. “Minnesota is an awesome team so I didn’t want to look. I didn’t want to stress myself out.”
Not fully knowing the tight race, the stress-free senior took to beam in the lineup’s fifth spot and scored a 9.875 to clinch Utah’s berth to nationals for the 44th time.
“If you would have asked me about that two years ago, I probably would have thrown up before beam,” Merrell-Giles laughed. “I feel like I’ve been in that situation a couple of times on beam and you train yourself to block out your nerves and pressure. I wanted to hit a good beam routine to boost our score.”
“We did what we needed to do to make it,” Lee said.
The team’s seniors agreed that “you don’t ever want to be on the team that ruins the streak.”
“The pressure of making nationals every single year? This is my last year and I thought ‘What if it doesn’t happen?’” Lee said. “It’s there in the back of your head. Before we left, Tom talked to us and said, ‘I know we can get caught up trying to make it to nationals and the pressure, but just focus on what we have accomplished so far and our preparation.’”
“On the flight home, Kari and I were talking about how we made it and didn’t break the streak.” Merrell-Giles said. “We’re so grateful. You never know what can happen. I didn’t know it was that close until someone told me. If I was watching the meet, I would have been stressed. That’s what’s fun about gymnastics — those kinds of meets.”
