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Grace McCallum opened up about her teammate, Avery Neff, missing the high bar at the Regional Finals on April 5, 2025. The Utah Red Rocks dominated the finals with impressive performances and perfect scores in all the events.
Utah was the highest-ranked team in Salt Lake City during the regional finals, and they maintained their 48-year streak of making it to the nationals. They succeeded in qualifying for their 49th appearance at the Nationals after securing a final score of 197.825, besting UCLA, who earned second place with a score of 197.625.
Although Utah secured first place, they faced a difficult start as freshman Avery Neff missed the high bar on uneven bars and fell down on the mat. With this, the team opened the night with a score of 49.425, standing below Denver and UCLA.
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McCallum made her feelings known about this incident in the post-event interview, where she lauded Neff's skills, claiming that the mistake only made Avery more determined to perform better at the upcoming events (as quoted by KSL.com):
"I think it was important to just give her a moment to breathe, kind of collect herself," Grace McCallum said. "But I know Avery is one of those girls where if she makes a little mistake, she's going to use that to fuel her fire and just become more competitive throughout the meet. And so she handled it amazingly and did her job the other three events."
Meanwhile, Denver's and Minnesota's campaigns ended with scores of 197.350 and 196.825, respectively.
Grace McCallum opened up about her team winning the NCAA Regional Finals
Grace McCallum garnered attention during the NCAA Regional finals with her perfect scores in all the events. She started the night by competing at the bars, where she scored a perfect 10.0, showcasing her dominance. Following this, she squared off against her opponents in the beam finals, where she again earned a near-perfect score of 9.950 and then proved her heroics in the floor exercise, where she earned another almost-perfect score of 9.975.
Her last performance of the night was in the vault exercise, where she scored 9.800 points. Following these incredible performances, she made her feelings known about her team winning the finals (as quoted by the aforementioned source):
"We got excited and we let our competitive spirits out, which I think was the biggest change from anything we've experienced in the past," Grace McCallum said.
She also opened up about her mindset while competing in the vault exercise. Revealing that she was feeling a little stressed, McCallum said:
"I was feeling a little stressed, but I kind of let those nerves, I kind of set them aside and just went up and did what I know how to do. Just really trusted my training and my practice I've put in, and just let it go."
Grace McCallum's team, the Red Rocks, will regroup before heading to their 49th consecutive NCAA National Championship appearance. It will take place in Fort Worth, Texas, on April 17-19.
