Utah’s Maile O’Keefe competes within the flooring train in the course of the semifinals of the NCAA ladies’s gymnastics championships Thursday, April 13, 2023, in Fort Value, Texas. Tony Gutierrez, AP
FORT WORTH, Texas — Maile O’Keefe is doing issues few Utah gymnasts have ever executed.
Critically.
Throughout the 2023 common season, O’Keefe grew to become the most effective stability beam competitor in Utah historical past, surpassing Ute legend Theresa Kulikowski for essentially the most excellent 10s in a profession (O’Keefe set the report for essentially the most excellent 10s in a single season as junior, a report she has since damaged as a senior).
Thursday evening at Dickies Enviornment within the semifinals of the NCAA ladies’s gymnastics championships, O’Keefe added to her accolades. In a big approach.
Along with her ninth excellent 10 of the season — an ideal beam routine that clinched a berth for Utah within the nationwide championship meet — O’Keefe grew to become a person NCAA champion once more.
She received each the all-around competitors and the beam title Thursday, including these championships to uneven bars and flooring train titles she received in 2021.
She is now one in all solely two gymnasts in Utah historical past to win at the very least 4 particular person NCAA nationwide championships, alongside Ute legend Missy Marlowe.
Furthermore, O’Keefe grew to become the primary Crimson Rock to win an all-around championship since Kulikowski did so in 1999, changing into the fifth all-around champion in Utah historical past within the course of.
O’Keefe and Marlowe are actually the one Utah gymnasts ever with NCAA titles within the all-around and on bars, beam and flooring.
Mixed collectively, the beam report and the NCAA titles, O’Keefe has an actual argument to holding the title of ‘Biggest of All Time’ at Utah. On the very least, she has a resume that makes her a very legendary Crimson Rock.
It's one thing she didn’t see coming. At the very least the all-around NCAA title.
“I truthfully thought it was going to be unattainable to win,” O’Keefe mentioned, earlier than referencing her vault, which has a begin worth of 9.95.
“I began at an obstacle,” she mentioned. “I couldn’t get an ideal 40. All I might do was exit and do my greatest and that's what I did. Amazingly sudden outcome.”
Her excellent beam routine got here amid a bunch of distractions, as UCLA’s Jordan Chiles recorded an ideal 10 on bars throughout O’Keefe’s routine — raucous cheers adopted — and Utah and UCLA had been battling for a berth within the nationwide championship meet, that means each scrap of factors mattered.
“Whereas I used to be on the beam I might hear the commotion,” O’Keefe mentioned. “I figured one thing superb had occurred. But it surely has occurred earlier than. With the identical groups. You simply have to remain targeted.”
O’Keefe isn't any stranger to successful. She received a nationwide championship previous to her time at Utah and whereas a Crimson Rock she has collected loads of Pac-12 accolades — together with Pac-12 Gymnast of the 12 months in 2021 — and now 4 NCAA titles.
At this level, all O’Keefe needs is a group nationwide championship, although she didn’t depart a possible vault title off the desk for subsequent 12 months.
“A (group title) will in all probability be essentially the most fulfilling NCAA championship,” she mentioned. “A title with my teammates. I've executed loads of issues on my own and none of it has been as fulfilling because it was to even win a Pac-12 title with my group. Hopefully we make that an NCAA title too.
“When it comes to vault, I’ll in all probability should get into the health club and work on a (Yurchenko 1.5) and attempt to dial that down by the point NCAA’s come subsequent 12 months. We are going to see if that basically occurs.”
Win a group nationwide title at Utah and O’Keefe will certainly should be thought of the best Utah gymnast ever. That's if she isn’t already.