After three rotations of the evening session at the Pac-12 Championships on Saturday night, Utah held a slim lead over Oregon State. But visions of the Utes’ first conference title soon crumbled as they finished with their lowest beam score since Feb. 1 against Arizona State.
A 48.825 in the final rotation allowed UCLA and OSU to leapfrog the Utes, who finished third with a 197.075. The Beavers won on their home floor, as they posted a season-high 197.85. The Bruins were second, earning a 197.375. Stanford took fourth with a 196.625.
“The issue is how to deal with [the pressure] and obviously we didn’t deal with it very well,” said Utah co-head coach Greg Marsden of the final-rotation collapse. “We let it get to us and tighten us up a little bit and probably got up there and tried a little too hard. You’ve got to be relaxed.”
Utah’s lead-off beam worker, Becky Tutka, had a major balance check during her routine and earned a 9.625. Freshman standout Breanna Hughes came next and settled for a 9.7, one of her lowest scores this season. When Georgia Dabritz fell off the beam as the last gymnast of the night, the Utes were forced to count Tutka’s low score.
While Utah was imploding on the beam, Oregon State was giving the home crowd plenty of reason to make some noise. Ending the night on bars, the Beavers counted nothing less than a 9.875 and scored a 49.675, easily their highest of the year.
UCLA also took advantage of the Utes’ stumbles. The Bruins finished the night with a 49.5 on vault, which was punctuated by a 10.0 from Vanessa Zamarripa. It was the only perfect score of the championships. Utah’s Tory Wilson was previously undefeated on vault this year, but her 9.95 tied her for second place with four others, including Dabritz.
“I knew it was bound to happen eventually,” Wilson said of her first loss. “It can’t go on forever, but I think Vanessa is a good person to lose it to if I was going to lose it.”
Utah was the only team to end the night without a title-winner. Joining Dabritz and Wilson as a runner-up was Tutka, who tied for second on floor. Wilson also took fourth in the all-around with a 39.45.
The Utes were feeling confident entering the championships after posting the third-highest score in the nation against Florida last week. Dabritz said they were relaxed and felt “no expectations.” That showed early, as a 49.4 on floor and a 49.475 on vault gave Utah the lead at the halfway mark, 98.875-98.725, over OSU. The Utes went on to earn a 49.375 on bars, their best road score on the event this year, but the Beavers’ 49.45 set up the crucial final rotation.
“We went in with positive attitudes and we were trying to do our best,” Dabritz said. “It wasn’t the outcome we wanted, but this meet doesn’t really qualify us anywhere so we are just hoping we can go into regionals and get a better outcome.”
As Dabritz said, placing third in the conference championships won’t hurt Utah’s postseason seeding. In fact, the Utes’ score will boost their regional qualifying score. Utah will find out today which regional it will compete in April 6.