No. 3 Red Rocks to Square Off Against No. 2 Oklahoma
The Utah Red Rocks gymnast and University of Utah junior Cristal Isa performs on the floor during the Best of Utah NCAA Gymnasitics Meet at Maverick Center, West Valley City on 09 Jan 2021. (Photo by Abu Asib | The Daily Utah Chronicle)
January 16, 2021
Two of the nation’s biggest powerhouses are set to face off in one of the most anticipated meets of the young 2021 NCAA gymnastics season. The No. 3 University of Utah Red Rocks gymnastics team will hit the road to face off with No. 2 Oklahoma in a top 3 showdown.
While the two teams haven’t met each other in the regular season recently, they have faced each other in the postseason many times before. Utah currently leads the series 28-10 with the last 20 meetings all happening in the postseason. The last time the two met in the regular season was in 1992 where the Red Rocks dominated the Sooners 195.800-187.000.
Scouting the No. 3 Red Rocks
Record: 3-0, 0-0 Pac-12
Last meet: W at Best of Utah with a 196.900
The Red Rocks opened up their 2021 season last week with a dominating win in the Best of Utah meet. There was a full point separation between the Red Rocks and BYU when the final scores were called in the meet. Cristal Isa won the all-around with a score of 39.400. Maile O’Keefe claimed the floor title with her 9.900 and shared the beam title with Abby Paulson. Cammy Hall won the vault title in the opening meet.
After their first week of competition the Red Rocks rank No. 4 on the vault, No. 11 on the bars, No. 3 on the beam and are tied for No. 1 in the nation on the floor with LSU.
Hear it From Head Coach Tom Farden
On the importance of Utah and OU meeting in the regular season:
“The scheduling and the way it works, the bulk of our meets are conference meets. Eating the lion’s share of available weekends, there really isn’t another opportunity to see Oklahoma, just out of conference, things were locked up for that on their end. So scheduling is a bit of an arc when you have eight conference meets that you’ve got to take care of. And so it was our only opportunity to see them that worked out in their schedule and ours and we did this three years ago. So yeah, it was really important. We’re really excited about it. Obviously, Oklahoma is a very dominant team and we wanted to make sure that we could get them on schedule,” Farden said.
Scouting the No. 2 Sooners
Record: 1-0, 0-0 Big 12
Last meet: W vs Arizona State 197.450-194.725
After the departure of All-American Maggie Nichols, the Sooners aren’t running around trying to look for their next big contributor. Anastasia Webb has assumed the role voided by Nichols. In the season opener last week, Webb posted a 39.600 in the all-around, along with a victory on the beam and the floor.
The Sooners hold a spot in the top 5 on all of the events thus far in the season. They are No. 2 on the vault, No. 1 on the bars, No. 2 on the beam and are tied for No. 3 on the floor with Florida.
How to Support the Red Rocks
This week’s meet will be nationally televised on ESPN2 starting at 3 p.m MST. Bart Conner will handle the play by play, while Kelly Garrison Funderburk will be the color analyst for the meet.
This is the last meet on the Red Rocks schedule as of right now. The remainder of the schedule will be announced at a later date.
