The No. 4 Utah Red Rocks (10-0, 6-0 Pac-12) held on to win 196.875-195.750 at No. 12 Oregon State (7-4, 4-4 Pac-12), giving the Red Rocks their first win in Corvallis since 2011. Utah struggled to finish on the beam and nearly lost the meet as a result.
Senior Georgia Dabritz performed well during the night. She won bars for the seventh time this season with a 9.95, and tied for first on floor (9.925). In her third event, Dabritz scored a 9.875 on vault. It would have been helpful to have her compete on beam, where she scored a 9.925 in exhibition (the score would have tied for first with OSU's Chelsea Tang). She was competing in the all-around for much of the season but has been pulled from it in the last two meets. The strong performance in beam will give the coaches something to think about.
Senior Tory Wilson won vault with a 9.95 and helped vault Utah to a 49.50 in the event. Senior Corrie Lothrop performed well in her three events with a 9.90 on bars, 9.875 on beam and 9.90 on floor.
Utah struggled a bit on the floor with both Wilson and senior Becky Tutka stepping out of bounds (Lothrop and Dabritz finished the event strong though). The Red Rocks did perform well in the vault and bars, scoring a 49.50 and 49.35 respectively.
Utah had a comfortable nearly two-point lead after three events (148.175-146.300), but everything started to fall apart on beam with both Wilson and freshman Kari Lee suffering their first falls of the season. This marks the first time the Red Rocks have had to count a fall in an event this season. Strong performances from Kailah Delaney (9.825), and Maddy Stover (9.850), Baely Rowe (9.80) and Lothrop (9.875) helped preserve the win for the Red Rocks.
"That's not what we were hoping for (on the beam)," said co-head coach Greg Marsden. "At least we won, which is hard to do here and which we haven't done for awhile."
Marsden elaborated on the poor beam performance. "Both Tory and Kari missed on a three-series, which is high risk, high reward. We know we're taking a risk doing those skills on the balance beam, but typically we've handled it," said Marsden.
Beam was the Achilles' heel for the Red Rocks in the past few years but was looking better for Utah this season until this performance against the Beavers.
"I'm not sure what happened on beam," said Marsden. "After OSU fell early in the meet, we didn't have them breathing down our necks. We just needed to stay on the beam."
Utah will hope to improve on beam for the next meet, which is big one. It is the final home meet of the season, and it is against No. 6 Michigan on Friday, March 6 at 7 p.m. MT in the Huntsman Center. Utah will honor its four senior gymnasts before the meet: Dabritz, Lothrop, Tutka and Wilson.