For the first time ever, Arizona Wildcats beat Utah’s gymnastics team

With all the dramatics of the last few weeks, Utah’s gymnastics needed a mundane meet Friday — a nice easy win to close out the hectic week.

The Utes didn’t get it.

Instead, the Utes were upset by Arizona 196.85-196.775 in a stunning defeat at the Wildcats’ McKale Center.

Utah (9-2) went into the meet leading the series with the Wildcats 67-0 and the Wildcats were winless with an 0-8 record. No wins are guaranteed, but this one seemed as easy as they could come.

Utah’s downfall came on the balance beam where Adrienne Randall (8.925) and Cristal Isa (9.075) fell, leaving Utah with a 48.725 event score, their lowest event score of the year.

At the same time, Arizona put together one of its best floor showings, earning a 49.3 to wrestle the win away from the Utes.

The loss was a shocker in a season of shocking results, but made more so by an injury to Arizona’s Alysen Fears in warmups. Fears, regarded as Arizona’s best gymnast, had to be carried off the floor.

Utah coach Tom Farden took the blame as the coach for the loss.

“You could probably deduce or theorize that it’s our own mental things with the kids being able to do the stuff they need to do in the decisive moment,” Farden said. “Believe me in practice we are not seeing that and this is why it is so perplexing.”

Until the miscues on the beam, the Utes were enjoying a workmanlike night, opening on the bars with a 49.35, scoring a 49.3 on the vault and a 49.4 on the floor.

Sage Thompson led the bars with a 9.925 and Jaedyn Rucker paced the vault effort with a 9.95.

The Utes did have some steps on their vault landings and Cammy Hall fell for the second week in a row, scoring 9.25, but an upset didn’t seem possible until the final rotation.

Falls on the beam led to a Utah loss at Cal, but the Utes have been very good on the event since then, scoring 49.725 against Oregon State and 49.6 against Washington.

That the falls came from some of the seasoned performers added to the surprising outcome.

Perhaps the effort of competing in three meets in a week’s time got to the Utes. That reasoning is acceptable for most teams, but not for the Utes who wanted to use this series of meets as a test run for the post-season.

Instead, they are left with more questions than answers.

Farden refused to blame the schedule for the loss, noting the Utes looked fine on the floor, an event that normally betrays tired muscles.

The only misstep there was by Sydney Soloski who jammed her toe and landed slightly short on a pass, scoring 9.825.

Soloski walked off gingerly but Farden said she will be fine.

The greater question is, will the Utes?