(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah’s Maile O’Keefe performs celebrates her perfect 10 on the beam during the gymnastics meet with Stanford at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City, Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022.
You could feel it building. One routine after another was just a little glitch, a little hesitation, away from being perfect. From the 9.9 by Amelie Morgan, to the 9.95s from Grace McCallum and Abby Paulson to the 9.925 from Cristal Isa.
Utah’s beam routines flirted with perfection Saturday, until Maile O’Keefe mounted the beam.
Then the junior performed the routine everyone in the Huntsman Center was waiting for. It was flawless from one movement to another to the landing, delivering one of the rare 10.0 scores on the event.
As O’Keefe nailed the landing and threw back her head in satisfaction, Utah’s crowd of 11,138 fans started a huge celebration anticipating a 10.0.
Oh, yeah, Utah defeated Stanford 197.675-196 in the Pac-12 meet. The score seemed almost secondary to Utah’s beam performances.
INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
Vault: Alexia Burch (Utah) 9.9
Uneven bars: Cristal Isa (Utah) 9.95
Balance beam: Maile O’Keefe (Utah) 10.0
Floor: Grace McCallum (Utah) 9.95
All-around: Grace McCallum (Utah) 49.425
Remember a week ago the Utes suffered one of their worst efforts on the beam in the past two seasons as they scored just 49.025 after several big breaks.
Afterward O’Keefe said the Utes could get mad about it or do something about it. Guess we all know in which direction they went.
“It was the perfect lead-up,” O’Keefe said of the beam set. “I could perform without any stress. It was all you can ask for as an anchor.”
O’Keefe’s perfect score was the second of her career on the event, with the first coming against Washington in 2021.
Her score puts her in a select group as she joins Missy Marlowe (1989-92), Kristen Kenoyer (1990-93), Traci Sommer (1995-98), Shannon Bowles (1998-02), Theresa Kulikowski (1999-2003) and Ashley Postell (2005-08) as the only Utah gymnasts to earn more than one 10.0 on the beam.
O’Keefe is accustomed to success on the event. She won the region and Pac-12 beam title last year and was a second-team All-American on beam as a freshman.
But Saturday’s performance could have lasting impact past the individual accolades.
O’Keefe’s effort gave the Utes a 49.725 beam score, just a little shy of the team record of 49.775 set against UCLA in 2020.
How the Utes would respond to their mistakes was the biggest question going into the meet against Stanford. Was it a signal Utah’s consistent dominance over the beam was going to disappear this year or was it something of a rare off day. Heck, there was even talk maybe something was wrong with the beam. (Coach Tom Farden assured it was fine after he gave the beam a post-meet inspection).
Saturday put the concerns at ease as the Utes once again worked the beam confidently.
“Don’t talk to the kicker,” Farden said of his coaching tactic for the week. “We didn’t make a big deal out of it or sit there and say ‘Oh my gosh, the sky is falling.’”
The beam wasn’t the only area in which the Utes improved from a week ago. The uneven bars, where they scored a 49.4, was improved as well while the floor (49.425) and vault (49.125) were strong despite a couple miscues.
One of those was O’Keefe’s 9.825 on the floor as she landed short on her pass, a move that could almost be expected after the emotional draining effort on the beam although she didn’t take the easy excuse.
“It was just one of those things that happens,” she said. “I was feeling good but just overlooked a few of my techniques.”
Farden was disappointed the Utes didn’t sustain the momentum from beam, but overall likes how his team closed out January.
“It wasn’t a fatal thing, I just wanted a little more,” Farden said.
Taking the last two meets together, it seems the Utes are willing to give him what he wants.