“Overall, I felt our first two events were extremely strong,” head coach Tom Farden remarked. “We were aware that we would need a solid day in the vault to stay up. For whatever reason, it did not shake out that way, and we then moved on to bars, where I am quite happy of how we ended strong. We’re going to look back on this year with pride because it was fantastic. It is a significant achievement for these athletes in terms of their accomplishments — not just this year, but throughout the last many years. Today, there is plenty to be proud of.”
On Saturday, the Utes rotated to vault and failed to maintain a competitive edge. Rucker confidently defended her NCAA vault championship, dropping another stalled Yurchenko 1.5 for the second competition in a straight. McCallum and Alexia Burch contributed 9.8375s to the total, while O’Keefe (9.8125) and Lucy Stanhope (9.8125) earned the rotation’s last two points (9.7625).
Utah finishes the season with its second consecutive Pac-12 Championship, third consecutive Pac-12 Regular Season Championship, second consecutive NCAA Regional victory, and third-place finish at the NCAA Championships for the second consecutive year as the only team to qualify for every NCAA Championship in history.
