Kari Lee made her Arizona homecoming a night toremember for her fans and Utah’s third-ranked gymnastics team as she ledthe Utes to a 197.55-196.325 win over No. 21 Arizona in Tucson, Ariz.

Lee, a junior from Peoria, Ariz., scored season highs of 9.9 on the vault and uneven bars and 9.925 on the balance beam.

Lee’s effort on the beam won that event and she tied with Arizona’sChristina Berg for the bars title. They were her first wins of theseason and give her 14 for her career.

“Kari loves coming home,” Utah coach Tom Farden said. “She was in her element and she is back to full health and it showed.”

Lee was bothered earlier in the season by a sore calf muscle. While Lee excelled on three events, MaKenna Merrell-Giles continued herstrong start to the season as she won the all-around with a career best39.625.

Merrell-Giles scored 9.95 on the vault, 9.85 on the bars, 9.9 on the balance beam and 9.925 on the floor.

“She was very calm out there and just did her thing,” Farden said ofMerrell-Giles. “She does that in practice all the time and that was theclosest we have seen to resemble that.”

Individual results

Vault: Payton Bellows (Arizona) and MaKenna Merrell-Giles (Utah) 9.95

Uneven bars: Christina Berg (Arizona) and Kari Lee (Utah) 9.9

Balance beam: Kari Lee (Utah) 9.925

Floor: Lauryn Mattson (Arizona), Kennady Schneider (Arizona) and MaKenna Merrell-Giles (Utah) 9.925

All-Around: MaKenna Merrell-Giles (Utah) 39.625

The Utes (5-1, 2-0) led Arizona 98.725-98.375 at the halfway mark,then turned a close meet into a comfortable lead on the next rotation.

The Utes, ranked No. 1 on the floor, scored a 49.425 while Arizona(0-4, 0-2) had major breaks from its final two competitors on the beamto score just 48.525.

The combination of efforts gave the Utes a 148.15-146.8 score going into the final rotation.

Merrill-Giles led the Utes’ floor effort with a 9.925 and MyKayla Skinner and Sydney Soloski had 9.9s.

Utah carried its confidence into the balance beam where it finishedwith a season best 49.4 led by the 9.9 from Lee and 9.9s fromMerrell-Giles and Alexia Burch. It was only the second routine ofBurch’s career.

Farden was impressed with the focus his team showed from the start of the meet.

“It could have been a night where they let their guard down but they’vechosen to be warriors this year as their theme,” he said. “They usedtheir experience to stay focused and it showed.”

The only tense moment of the night came during vault warmups whenTiffani Lewis took a hard tumble. Lewis scored a 9.775 for a routinethat looked a little tentative, but Farden said she was fine.

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