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FORT WORTH, Texas — The reigning women's gymnastics champions will not get a chance to defend its crown.
The top-seeded Oklahoma Sooners stumbled in their opening event of vault with a couple sit downs to put the defending champs in an early hole — a 1.3125-point deficit — and then found their chances come to an end after two gymnasts fell off the beam in the third rotation.
It was a surprising result for a team that seemed to be the inevitable champions for another year after multiple perfect routines all season and nearly eclipsing a 199.0 team score weeks prior.
But after the early adversity in the Thursday night semifinal meet, the Sooners could never get back on top.
The fifth-ranked Red Rocks, however, opened the night with as good of a start as could be expected and scored a meet-high 49.6375 score on beam to set an early tone in which Utah led wire to wire in the second semifinal meet of nationals.
Though Utah had its struggles on vault, the Red Rocks went on to win the meet and advance to the final night of nationals with a 197.9375 team score. The Red Rocks topped No. 4 Florida, who finished with a 197.8750 team score and was the second team to advance to the final night of nationals, where they'll take on No. 2 LSU and No. 3 California.
Oklahoma finished third, with a 196.6625 team score; and Alabama, which started out in second place after the first rotation, finished in last with a 195.4125 team score.
"I think I'm still wrapping my head around, actually," Utah head coach Carly Dockendorf said. "But just incredibly proud of the team tonight. We started on beam, and I felt like we came out really aggressive and dynamic, and we knew that that's what we needed to do to be able to kind of carry the momentum moving into the floor."
Amelie Morgan and Makenna Smith quickly set the tone of the night on beam with back-to-back 9.9250 scores, before Abby Paulson and Maile O'Keefe topped the scores with back-to-back 9.950 scores in the fourth and fifth positions.
And though the Red Rocks had a strong start, it was in stark contrast to the start Oklahoma had when Faith Torrez led off with an early sit down and started off the scores with a 9.3250. Though one mistake, it proved to rattle the team.
The Sooners were forced to eventually count a 9.3750 score by Katherine LeVasseur and a 9.450 by a usually consistent Jordan Bowers.
The Red Rocks continued the momentum on floor with a 49.5875 team score, topped by 9.950 scores by Jaylene Gilstrap and O'Keefe. Paulson and Grace McCallum added 9.90 scores, while Smith rounded out the scores with a 9.8875 in the leadoff spot.
Oklahoma rebounded in the second rotation and recorded a 49.6625 score on bars, lifting the Sooners to third after Alabama had a pair of falls on beam to sink the Crimson Tide to the fourth spot.
Utah stumbled a bit in the third rotation, in which some of the Red Rocks gymnasts tried for sticks and either under or over rotated to take some deductions. But freshman Ella Zirbes and Smith added 9.9125 scores to keep the team atop the leaderboard and in contention for a final night of nationals.
Though the Red Rocks stumbled in the third rotation, the Sooners' bad night went from bad to worse.
Ava Siegfeldt fell off the beam, leaving the Sooners with even less room for error. But a few gymnasts later, LeVasseur also had a misstep and couldn't stay on the beam. At that point, Oklahoma's fate was sealed and it was merely a formality of things to come going into the final rotation of the night.
The only question remaining in the meet going into the final rotation was whether Florida could overtake Utah. The Gators briefly eclipsed the Red Rocks going into the final gymnast for each time, but it was Alani Sabado — who has had an up-and-down season on bars — who lifted the team to a semifinal win.
The senior specialist capped off her bars routine with a perfect stick to score a 9.90, and the Red Rocks jumped back ahead Florida.
The Red Rocks will compete Saturday at 2 p.m. MDT, with the meet being broadcast on ABC and each event being streamed on ESPN+.
Team scores
No. 5 Utah
- Beam: 49.6375
- Floor: 99.2250 (49.5875)
- Vault: 148.4250 (49.2000)
- Bars:197.9375 (49.5125)
No. 4 Florida
- Floor: 49.4500
- Vault: 98.9500 (49.5000)
- Bars: 148.4000 (49.4500)
- Beam: 197.8750 (49.4750)
Did not advance:
No. 1 Oklahoma
- Vault: 48.3250
- Bars: 97.9875 (49.6625)
- Beam: 147.0875 (49.1000)
- Floor: 196.6625 (49.5750)
No. 8 Alabama
- Bars: 49.4875
- Beam: 96.7375 (47.2500)
- Floor: 146.1500 (49.4125)
- Vault: 195.4125 (49.2625)
Red Rocks team scores
1st Rotation: Beam (49.6375)
- Amelie Morgan: 9.9250
- Makenna Smith: 9.9250
- Grace McCallum: 9.8875
- Abby Paulson: 9.9500
- Maile O'Keefe: 9.9500
- Jaylene Gilstrap: 9.2500
2nd Rotation: Floor (49.5875)
- Makenna Smith: 9.8875
- Jaedyn Rucker: 9.0875
- Abby Paulson: 9.9000
- Jaylene Gilstrap: 9.9500
- Maile O'Keefe: 9.9500
- Grace McCallum: 9.9000
3rd Rotation: Vault (49.2000)
- Amelie Morgan: 9.8000
- Ella Zirbes: 9.9125
- Ashley Glynn: 9.8000
- Makenna Smith: 9.9125
- Jaedyn Rucker: 9.6125
- Grace McCallum: 9.7750
4th Rotation: Bars (49.5125)
- Makenna Smith: 9.9125
- Ella Zirbes: 9.9250
- Amelie Morgan: 9.9000
- Maile O'Keefe: 9.8250
- Grace McCallum: 9.8750
- Alani Sabado: 9.9000
