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FORT WORTH, Texas — Fourth-ranked Utah was down but certainly not out Thursday night in the second session of the NCAA semifinals meet.

After a slow start on beam to open the meet, the Red Rocks found themselves in fourth place after the first rotation. The team trailed No. 5 UCLA, who topped the leaderboard with a strong showing on floor, by 0.3125.

Utah, though, had four gymnasts score a 9.90 or higher on floor to jumpstart the rest of the night — and the Red Rocks never looked back.

But even with the bounce-back effort, which included Utah jumping into second place after its strong floor showing, the field improved to make the Big 12 champions’ job more difficult to qualify for Saturday’s national championship.

Utah didn’t flinch, though, and closed out the night with the team’s highest event score of the season on bars (49.650) to pull away to win the meet with a 197.7625 score, which was the highest score among all four teams that qualified for Saturday’s championship meet.

UCLA closed out the night with three straight scores over 9.9125 in the final rotation to secure the final spot on Saturday with a 197.7375, edging out defending champion LSU, who finished in third, with a 197.5250 score. Michigan State rounded out the scores with a 197.3625.

Utah and UCLA join No. 2 Oklahoma and No. 7 Missouri in the championship meet Saturday (2 p.m. MDT, ABC).

Though the night didn’t go as planned in terms of putting together a dominant effort on all four events — a key point that head coach Carly Dockendorf hoped to see going into the semifinal meet — the team remained composed and never let the slow start define the night.

Grace McCallum bounced back from a shaky beam routine to score no less than a 9.950 on her final three events to help Utah’s comeback.

McCallum closed out floor in the anchor with her first 9.950 of the night before following it up with a 9.950 on vault for her first stick of the season on the event after working hard to get back to that after an injury a couple years ago. She then made certain Utah would win the meet with a 9.9625 on bars.

It was a bars event where the Red Rocks had all five recorded gymnasts score over a 9.9125.

Makenna Smith led off bars with a stick and a 9.9125 to provide some early momentum. Freshman Avery Neff followed it up in the third spot with a 9.9250 before Amelie Morgan recorded a 9.9125 and Ella Zirbes got a 9.9375.

Zirbes’ score solidified a spot in Saturday’s meet, but McCallum’s score ensured victory.

Team scores

No. 1 LSU

• Bars: 49.3250
• Beam: 98.6500 (49.3250)
• Floor: 148.1500 (49.5000)
• Vault: 197.5250 (49.3750)

No. 4 Utah

• Beam: 49.2125
• Floor: 98.7750 (49.5625)
• Vault: 148.1125 (49.3375)
• Bars: 197.7625 (49.6500)

No. 5 UCLA

• Floor: 49.5250
• Vault: 98.7625 (49.2375)
• Bars: 148.1875 (49.4250)
• Beam: 197.7375 (49.5500)

No. 8 Michigan State

• Vault: 49.3875
• Bars: 98.8375 (49.4500)
• Beam: 148.0000 (49.1625)
• Floor: 197.3625 (49.3625)

Red Rocks scores

1st Rotation: Beam (49.2125)

• Amelie Morgan: 9.750
• Makenna Smith: 9.850
• Grace McCallum: 9.8125
• Avery Neff: 9.9125
• Camie Winger: 8.9750
• Ana Padurariu: 9.8875

2nd Rotation: Floor (49.5625)

• Ashley Glynn: 9.8375
• Ella Zirbes: 9.9000
• Avery Neff: 9.8750
• Jaylene Gilstrap: 9.9250
• Makenna Smith: 9.9125
• Grace McCallum: 9.9500

3rd Rotation: Vault (49.3375)

• Jaylene Gilstrap: 9.8500
• Grace McCallum: 9.9500
• Avery Neff: 9.8500
• Ashley Glynn: 9.8375
• Makenna Smith: 9.8500
• Zoe Johnson: 9.8375

4th Rotation: Bars (49.6500)

• Makenna Smith: 9.9125
• Ashley Glynn: 9.8000
• Avery Neff: 9.9250
• Amelie Morgan: 9.9125
• Ella Zirbes: 9.9375
• Grace McCallum: 9.9625