| 2021 UTAH ROSTER |
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| Seniors | ||
| Alexia Burch |
VT UB BB FX |
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| Emilie LeBlanc |
UB BB |
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| Sydney Soloski |
VT BB FX |
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| Juniors | ||
| Cammy Hall |
VT |
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| Cristal Isa |
VT UB BB FX |
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| Adrienne Randall |
BB FX |
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| Sophomores | ||
| Jillian Hoffman |
UB FX |
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| Maile O’Keefe |
VT UB BB FX |
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| Abby Paulson |
VT UB BB FX |
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| Jaedyn Rucker |
VT UB BB FX |
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| Freshmen | ||
| Jaylene Gilstrap |
VT BB FX |
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| Alani Sabado |
VT UB BB |
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| Lucy Stanhope |
VT UB BB FX |
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RANKING HISTORY
2020 – 4th
2019 – 7th
2018 – 5th
2017 – 5th
2016 – 9th
2015 – 2nd
2014 – 7th
2013 – 9th
2012 – 5th
2011 – 5th
THE 2020 STORY
Utah will have been exceptionally pleased with how the 2020 season was playing out…until it wasn’t playing out any longer. Despite the team having to do without MyKayla Skinner, 2020 (if we count it as real) will go down as Utah’s best result since 2015 and second-best result of the last decade—thanks almost entirely to a beam resurgence. Utah would have entered the postseason as a comfortable favorite to make nationals and would have been in a fascinating fight with the likes of LSU to see who could make the team final.
DEPARTING ROUTINES
Missy Reinstadtler – VT, UB, FX
Kim Tessen – VT, UB, FX
Hunter Dula – UB
INCOMING ROUTINES
Jaylene Gilstrap – VT, BB, FX
Alani Sabado – VT, UB, BB
Lucy Stanhope – VT, UB, BB, FX
2021 PROJECTION
Steady.
The cores of the lineups remain largely intact on three events, with some areas of potential improvement on those pieces. It’s tough to move up much when we get into the top 4 of the rankings, but Utah will expect to pick up where it left off last season as a team final contender.
VAULT
2020 Event Ranking: 7
| Lineup locks: Alexia Burch, Cammy Hall, Lucy Stanhope, Jaedyn Rucker |
| Lineup options: Cristal Isa, Maile O’Keefe, Sydney Soloski, Jaylene Gilstrap, Abby Paulson, Alani Sabado |
Despite Utah’s overall improvement in 2020, the team did regress a little on vault, the result of no longer having Skinner and Merrell-Giles. The window for improvement is open again in 2021 because the team should be adding two big scores to replace the one big score lost from Kim Tessen.
Lucy Stanhope made British teams in 2018 for her Yurchenko double full, and she is eyeing a 1.5 in college that would put her in a position of honor in the lineup alongside the returning 1.5s from Cammy Hall and Alexia Burch. Sophomore Jaedyn Rucker, who missed last season with injury but returns for 2021, competed an absolutely beautiful Y1.5 in JO that I had marked down as Utah’s top vault for 2020. Rucker performed a full in the most recent intrasquad video (a full that would also make the lineup), but Utah will very much hope that 1.5 comes back.
O’Keefe, Isa, and Soloski all vaulted a bunch last season and will probably be in competition with each other for the remaining spots, but there should be plenty of options for respectable fulls, including from Gilstrap and Sabado. Still, Utah won’t want to use more than a couple of those fulls if it wants to stay top-5 competitive.
BARS
2020 Event Ranking: 7
| Lineup locks: Cristal Isa, Emilie LeBlanc, Maile O’Keefe, Alani Sabado |
| Lineup options: Abby Paulson, Jaedyn Rucker, Lucy Stanhope, Adrienne Randall, Jillian Hoffman |
If Utah has a question mark event in 2021, it’s bars. On this piece, Utah returns just three members from its final 2020 lineup and has the fewest realistic options available overall. (Case in point, we’ve seen Adreinne Randall training bars, so even though she hasn’t competed the event for Utah yet, I’m putting her on the options list because it’s another warm body.)
Cristal Isa developed into a strong bars worker last year, Emilie LeBlanc competed consistently every week for at least 9.8s, and Maile O’Keefe is exceptional on bars, even her scores ended up a bit lower for double Arabian reasons. We’ll need to see all three of them every week in 2021, and I’d expect Alani Sabado to join them, the best bars worker among the new athletes.
We saw Abby Paulson compete a few times last year for reasonable 9.8s, and Jaedyn Rucker seems a likely choice as well. Her bars doesn’t have the wow factor of vault or floor, but it has always been a good event for her. I hope Lucy Stanhope also sees some time. She has a bunch of difficulty, but the question is whether it can be refined into a clean college set. So…that’s 7 people? A lineup and spare? It’s enough, but there is a chance of getting 9.825ed into submission with this group.
BEAM
2020 Event Ranking: 2
| Lineup locks: Maile O’Keefe, Abby Paulson, Adrienne Randall, Cristal Isa, Jaylene Gilstrap |
| Lineup options: Alexia Burch, Emilie LeBlanc, Jaedyn Rucker, Lucy Stanhope, Sydney Soloski, Alani Sabado |
Utah’s tremendously successful 2020 beam lineup returns all six members, which provides every reason to think this beam rotation will be among the best in the country again in 2021. There’s really not a ton to say about it because…just do the exact same thing again.
The main discussion point is Jaylene Gilstrap, who happens to be excellent on beam and really does need to be in this lineup. So, someone who got big scores last season probably won’t make it this year. The lowest returning score comes from LeBlanc, but is that because it was the weakest routine of the six, or because it was the leadoff? Decisions, decisions. In my mind, O’Keefe, Paulson, Randall, and Isa all have to be considered locks given last season’s performance, but we shall see.
There are other solid beamers on this roster (we’ve seen training video of Stanhope and Soloski), but given the current setup, they probably won’t be needed much this year.
FLOOR
2020 Event Ranking: 8
| Lineup locks: Sydney Soloski, Jaedyn Rucker, Adrienne Randall, Maile O’Keefe |
| Lineup options: Lucy Stanhope, Jaylene Gilstrap, Cristal Isa, Abby Paulson, Alexia Burch, Jillian Hoffman |
Floor ended as Utah’s lowest-ranked event last season, and the quest to turn that dial up a little bit in 2021 runs through Jaedyn Rucker and Lucy Stanhope, just like on vault. Rucker has supreme tumbling that is complemented by solid leap ability, so she should rank up there with Soloski as the highest floor scores for Utah.
I’d like to see Stanhope and Gilstrap both get into the floor group as well, Stanhope for the tumbling and Gilstrap for the leaps and general movement quality. Both look like they have a pretty good shot even though Utah is not saying goodbye to all that much on floor from last season. O’Keefe should be there, Randall has always scored solidly, and Isa did well last season, but other than Soloski, there isn’t a lot of “she absolutely must be there lest the world crumble” among the returning options. That could end up being a scoring problem in Utah’s quest to get into the top 5 on every event, which is why I view it as important to get Stanhope and Gilstrap in there along with Rucker. That new blood is Utah’s best argument for improvement.
I think a lot of people are underestimating Stanhope on floor and bars… I think she’s gonna be a star and I’m so happy she switched her commitment I think Utah is a great fit for her
Where was Stanhope originally committed to again?
Arkansas
Stanhope’s knees, legs and feet are a hot mess. But Utah fixed Skinner so…
I think it’s debatable whether Utah fixed Skinner. I still felt like she was pretty sloppy.
I think Utah would have won the fight for final four last season. It will be I treating to see if they push hard for upgrades on Fx and Vt with the other events looming steady. Was McCool the designated beam coach?