The Utes won the meet 197.4-196.1, but the score doesn’t indicate the struggles that the Utes faced.
Gone were the crisp, spot-on routines the Utes used to beat the ooners. Friday, the Utes had several breaks and missed landings to leave them in a closer than anticipated meet with their Pac-12 rival.
Their missteps, plus a strong showing on the floor by Arizona State, gave the Sun Devils a 118.05-117.725 lead at one point in the rotation. Maile O’Keefe followed Isa’s example and scored 9.95 to finish out the set for the Utes. The last two routines were enough to keep the Utes in the lead, 147.725-147.275 going into the final rotation.“Beam was not what we trained,” O’Keefe said afterward. “We have high expectations on beam and we are going to have to focus in on that event.”