California at Utah

Recap

The Big Storyline: Utah showed off on its signature event, beam, led by a near-perfect score from Maile O’Keefe to edge California in a meet that came down to the final rotation. The Golden Bears took the lead to begin after starting on their strongest event, bars, and held on through the halfway point before the Utes took over. Back-to-back 9.950s from Cristal Isa and Abby Paulson set the stage for O’Keefe’s monster score on beam, and Utah tied its floor season high to capture the win. California was led by Milan Clausi’s winning vault and Maya Green and Nina Schank tying for the bars title.

Implications: Utah now stands alone atop the Pac-12 regular season standings with both teams coming into this meet undefeated in conference action. The Utes will be heavily favored to claim that title with Oregon State the only remaining conference foe left on their schedule. California still has to face UCLA and Washington.

Records: Utah sophomore Jaedyn Rucker notched a new career high on floor en route to winning the event title.

Preview

Current Rankings: No. 9 California at No. 4 Utah

Why You Should Clear Space on Your DVR: The weekend’s premier Pac-12 conference meet pits the favorite against the dark horse. Utah comes into this matchup with momentum after narrowly defeating rival UCLA last weekend, but it did post a score lower than what opponent California achieved in defeating Oregon State. These are the final two undefeated teams in conference action, so the winner of this matchup will be in prime position to take home the regular season crown.

You Can Fast Forward, but not Through This: Leading the way for the Golden Bears has been their trio of all arounders: Maya Bordas, Nevaeh DeSouza and Kyana George. Both DeSouza and George have put up big 39.6s in recent weeks, so watch for them to lead California to a hopeful upset. The Utes have their own stellar all arounder in Maile O’Keefe, but don’t forget to keep an eye on Alexia Burch who has vaulted for 9.975s in Utah’s last two meets.