The Red Rocks are ready for the Pac-12 Championships in their own backyard
By: Sammy Mora
ESPN 700 Intern
It is finally postseason for the No. 6 University of Utah Red Rocks Gymnastics team. The team takes the short trip to West Valley City to compete in the Pac-12 Championships this Saturday Mar. 23. The Red Rocks are the No. 2 Seed heading into the late session of the championship.
The Red Rocks will be up against three teams that they had already taken on during the regular season. Current national champion UCLA will be in the No. 1 seed for the second year in a row, Oregon State will be in the No. 3 seed and rounding out the group is California who will be the fourth seed. The Red Rocks are 2-1 against the teams they will see again on Saturday with the only loss coming at the hands of UCLA. Utah is also the only team in this session that is not coming into the Championship that did not win in the regular season finale. The Red Rocks fell to Georgia last week by a score of 197.450-197.525, UCLA took down Utah State and Cal came in first place in a quad meet against San Jose State, Sacramento State and Illinois.
Here are a few things you need to know before heading to the Pac-12 Championships on Saturday #GoUtes pic.twitter.com/rjjCpMpNVF
— Utah Gymnastics (@UtahGymnastics) March 20, 2019
The late session of the competition will showcase the three athletes who won the last regular season accolades from the Conference of Champions. UCLA’s Katelyn Ohashi is this weeks Pac-12 Specialist of the Week, Cal’s Milan Clausi was this weeks Freshman of the week and Utah’s MyKayla Skinner was this weeks Gymnast of the week.
This week marks the sixth time this season the Ohashi has got the specialist recognition, the fourth time for Clausi and Skinner. Both Ohashi and Skinner hold conference records for their accolades. Ohashi broke the record of five specialist of the week awards in a season set by her team mate from last season, Christine Peng-Peng Lee. Skinner holds the conference record for the most times being recognized as gymnast of the week during a career at 16 times.
Competing in the early session of the Championship includes Washington, Arizona, Arizona State and Stanford. The only team from this session that the Red Rocks have not seen was Washington.
