Utah Wins Salt Lake City Regional, Headed to NCAA Championships

The Utah Red Rocks gymnastics team won the Salt Lake City Regional and will head to a record 43rd-straight NCAA Championship appearance. Utah’s streak dates back to before the NCAA governed women’s gymnastics. Utah posted a 197.475 to handily win the NCAA Regional meet. Runner up California (196.725) will join Utah in St. Louis on April 20-21. Auburn (196.525), Brigham Young (196.300), Stanford (195.600) and Southern Utah (194.625) were the other four competitors in the Regional competition.

While Utah won comfortably, it was not without drama. Both California and Auburn were in striking distance heading into Utah’s final event. A fall on beam from Kari Lee opened the door for both Cal and Auburn to jump ahead of Utah. However, Missy Reinstadtler (9.925) and MyKayla Skinner (9.900) closed out the event for Utah and sealed the record 43rd trip to the NCAA Championships. Skinner has now hit a school record 102 routines in a row (and is 102-of-102 in her career). Utah was on a bye for the last rotation and had mathematically already clinched the win, leaving Auburn and Cal to battle for the second remaining spot for an NCAA Championships appearance.

Utah posted the highest score on every event, led by their meet opening 49.600 on floor. Utah posted a 49.350 on vault and moved to a bye. At the halfway point in the meet (which was three rotations for this meet), Utah led with a 98.950. Utah did not perform as well on bars and beam, with half the Red Rocks failing to stick their landing on bars and the aforementioned fall on beam, but they did enough to get the win and advance. Skinner posted a 39.650 to win the all-around.