Things didn’t go how the Red Rocks were hoping Friday night in Corvallis, Oregon.
Sure, No. 4 Utah walked away with a 196.875-195.750 victory over No. 12 Oregon State, but the Utes didn’t get the fight they were hoping for from the Beavers, and then didn’t end the meet on a high-note themselves.
[ THE ORIGIN OF THE NICKNAME “RED ROCKS” ]
“It started out promising and ended up disappointing,” Utah co-head coach Greg Marsden said.
Utah started off on bars, where seniors Corrie Lothrop (9.90) and Georgia Dabritz (9.950) helped push the Utes to a 49.350-49.050 early lead.
That lead only grew after Utah hit the vault, where the Red Rocks showed why they are the No. 1 team in the country in the event. Three Utes topped 9.90, and Utah’s lowest counted score was a 9.875.
As Utah was sticking vault after vault, Oregon State was struggling over on bars.
Three major miscues low-lighted the Beavers bar set, causing them to count scores of 9.350 and 9.250, which led to Utah having nearly a two-point advantage, 98.850-97.025 after two events
Utah hasn’t faced late pressure yet in a meet, and once again headed into the last two events with a big lead, but this time the Utes didn’t close well.
Two Red Rocks — Tory Wilson and Becky Tutka — had uncharacteristic mistakes on their floor routines as both stepped out-of-bounds. The errors marred what otherwise were great routines.
The troubles continued on the beam. Through nine meets this season, the Utes had yet to count a fall on the apparatus, but that streak ended Friday night.
Wilson, going in the leadoff spot on the beam, got off center during a sequence of back handsprings and on her final flic-flac of the sequence, she flipped off the apparatus.
After Kailah Delaney and Maddy Stover both hit their beam routines, trouble hit again for the Utes when Kari Lee suffered her first fall of the season.
“Tory is in that leadoff spot because she’s such a rock for us,” Marsden said. “When she went down, I think everyone tightened up a little bit. And we just have to learn to stay relaxed and be confident and not allow that to change how we approach things.”
With Oregon State scoring high across the board on floor, the final two Utah performers needed to stay on the beam to secure the win. Baely Rowe rolled to a 9.80 before Lothrop ended things with a 9.875 to clinch the meet for the Utes.
“I hope it doesn’t have any long-term effect,” Marsden said of the falls. “We just got to get back in the gym and talk about what happened and see if there is something we can put our finger on and that we can address and handle a little differently.”
The Utes walked away with the win to remain perfect on the season, but weren’t necessarily pleased with their performance.
“We are all a little disappointed because we have been on such a roll and been getting consistently better for a number of meets,” Marsden said. “I can rationalize it and say maybe we were due for a flat meet at some point and I would certainly rather have it now than when we get into postseason. We have a couple meets to recover and get back on track and move in the direction we want to go.”
The Red Rocks will be back home next Friday for a showdown against Michigan.
Individual winners:
Vault: Tory Wilson (Utah) — 9.950
Bars: Georgia Dabritz (Utah) — 9.950
Beam: Chelsea Tang (Oregon State) — 9.925
Floor: Georgia Dabritz (Utah)/ Madeline Gardiner (Oregon State) — 9.925
All-around: Baely Rowe (Utah) — 39.300
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