Red Rocks Claim Second Straight Pac-12 Regular Season Title With Win Over Oregon State
Mar 5, 2021, 7:34 PM | Updated: 8:03 pm
Utah Red Rocks’ Maile O’Keefe does her floor routine during a gymnastics meet against the Cal Golden Bears at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, Feb. 26, 2021. Utah won and O'Keefe was the team’s high scorer. (Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)
(Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Red Rocks won the Pac-12 regular season championship with a 197.575-196.425 win over the Oregon State Beavers on Friday in Corvallis.
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The Red Rocks won their second straight Pac-12 regular season championship after beating Oregon State and finishing conference play undefeated. Entering Friday’s meet, Utah was ranked No. 4 in the country while Oregon State was the 23rd ranked team in the nation.
Maile O’Keefe won the all-around with a career-high 39.725.
The Red Rocks 𝗗𝗘𝗙𝗘𝗡𝗗 their title as Pac-12 Regular Season Champions! #𝙉𝙊𝙄𝙎𝙀 pic.twitter.com/3wSlT0WMjL
— Utah Gymnastics (@UtahGymnastics) March 6, 2021
Utah started the meet on the bars where Emilie LeBlanc stuck a landing for 9.875, followed by a career-high 9.95 score for Maile O’Keefe. Cristal Isa capped the rotation with a 9.90 and the Red Rocks held a 49.225-49.175 lead over Oregon State after the first rotation.
That's a career-high 9.95 on bars for Maile O'Keefe!! pic.twitter.com/JgxLmZ1tJ0
— Utah Gymnastics (@UtahGymnastics) March 6, 2021
The second rotation was the vault for the Utes as Maile O’Keefe had a great stick for a 9.90 score which tied her career high. Jaedyn Rucker had a career-high of 9.90. Alexia Burch added a score of 9.85 and Cammy Hall recorded a 9.85, while Lucy Stanhope posted a 9.825. The Red Rocks had a 98.550-97.575 lead over the Beavers halfway through the meet.
Maile ties her career high of 9.90 on vault with this beauty! 👇👇 pic.twitter.com/sKZWYyi0Kr
— Utah Gymnastics (@UtahGymnastics) March 6, 2021
Utah went to the floor on their third rotation. The 9.90 score was the theme of the night for Maile O’Keefe as she finished her floor routine with that score. Jaedyn Rucker was also having a tremendous night in Corvallis, posting a 9.90 score. Sydney Soloski had the highest score on the floor for Utah with a 9.925.
My oh Mai 😱 Maile having herself a night! She scores a 9.90 on floor for her third 9.90-plus score on three events! pic.twitter.com/pQ70f0coon
— Utah Gymnastics (@UtahGymnastics) March 6, 2021
The final rotation of the night was on the beam for Utah. Alexia Burch started things off with a 9.90. Cristal Isa recorded her second straight 9.95 score on the beam. Abby Paulson matched Isa with a 9.95. Maile O’Keefe sealed the win for the Red Rocks with a 9.975. She is the No. 1 gymnast in the country on the beam.
Poetry in motion 😍 Cristal scores her second-straight 9.95 on beam!! pic.twitter.com/lZZfQGt1ZX
— Utah Gymnastics (@UtahGymnastics) March 6, 2021
The Red Rocks improved their record to 9-1 overall and a perfect 6-0 in Pac-12 play. They will wrap up the regular season at the Jon M. Huntsman Center against Utah State on Friday, March 12 at 7 p.m. MT.
Trevor Allen is a Utah Utes Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Crimson Corner podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorASports. You can download and listen to the podcast, here.
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