It was billed as an early season preview of the 2025 women’s gymnastics national championship.
No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 2 LSU — the two most recent national champions — along with No. 4 Utah and No. 6 California. Four of the best teams in NCAA gymnastics, competing against each other in a nationally televised competition.
Before Saturday, Utah gymnastics hoped the meet would show that the Red Rocks can compete at the highest level, better even than they had during their third-place finishes at nationals in each of the last four seasons.
It ended up being a meet that Utah probably won’t count come the end of the year as part of its national qualifying score — a meet to be forgotten, for all intents and purposes.
Undone by mistakes — many small but damaging — as well as some head-scratching scoring, Utah finished last in the four-team competition with a score of 196.800.
Oklahoma won the meet, a quasi-home competition for the Sooners in Oklahoma City, with a 197.950. LSU finished second with a 197.650 while Cal came in third with a 197.275.
“Obviously we would have liked a different score at the end, a different finish,” Utah head coach Carly Dockendorf said.
Utah was slightly off on every event. The Red Rocks’ best event score was a 49.275 on uneven bars. Its worst was a 49.075 recorded on balance beam.
Little mistakes added up, be it landings that weren’t stuck on vault, handstands that weren’t hit or poor transitions on bars, and also bobbles on beam.
The list could on. It is early in the season after all.
Throw in some confusing scores — “the scoring was interesting today,” Dockendorf said — and it all added up to a disappointing showing for Utah on the biggest stage.
And also maybe not one. On that, Dockendorf was defiant.
“Not focusing on the (score) we finished with, I thought we showed a lot more confidence with our routines,” Dockendorf said. “This was obviously a much bigger pressure meet than last weekend, so for us to come out here and improve, even if just a little bit, we still improved.”
Defining moment
No single routine or even event proved Utah’s undoing. Utah was, scores notwithstanding, just not quite at the level of its competition for much of the afternoon.
The Red Rocks opened on floor exercise and scored significantly lower than the teams that followed, finishing with a 49.250. Oklahoma, meanwhile, scored a 49.525, which LSU matched.
Cal finished with a 49.350.
It was a slow start to the meet — on an event that generally provides big scores — and Utah was never able to recover from it. Only one Utah gymnast — freshman Avery Neff — managed to score a 9.90 or better on floor.
Experienced contributors Makenna Smith, Grace McCallum and Jaylene Gilstrap all finished in the mid-9.8s, scores that were considerably lower than what they have proven capable of in their careers.
And an out of sorts Ella Zirbes — she ran out of breath before her final tumbling pass and had to pause for a while — finished with a score in the 9.7 range, after she regularly broke into the 9.9s as a freshman last season.
There weren’t any glaring mistakes. Some under rotation on tumbling passes, some lack of control on landings, but it all added up together to get Utah behind early and in a hole that would only grow as the meet went on.
Dockendorf noted that some of the scoring made little sense to Utah — Gilstrap’s score on floor specifically, though she also mentioned Neff’s scores on bars and Ana Padurariu’s on beam.
“Avery’s bar routine, that was gorgeous,” she said, “and Ana’s beam routine was stunning and Jaylene’s floor routine was stunning. There were some routines where we were just shaking our heads a little.”
Utah actually submitted requests for six routine summaries at the end of the meet, the max allowed and the most Dockendorf has ever submitted in her career, all in an attempt to understand the scoring, at least somewhat.
“We felt that there were some routines where we felt honestly I have no idea how we got those scores,” she said.
Dockendorf also noted that her team wasn’t immune to being affected by scores they believed were lower than they what they had earned.
“It is really hard to do a beautiful routine and feel like you aren’t getting rewarded for it,” Dockendorf said.
She noted that, ultimately, scores can’t be controlled. That is gymnastics, after all, and that Utah plans on learning from the meet as best it can.
It is also why she has all the confidence in the world in her floor lineup, even with the showing on Saturday.
“We have some new people in our floor rotation this year and we have to keep building our confidence there, but again, I think sometimes we see the score and get a little bit deterred but we are doing these beautiful routines,” she said. .... “I think floor is an exceptional event for us and we are going to be amazing on that event, and we already are.”
Needs work
Even with some suspect scoring, Utah left room for real improvement. It was only the second meet of the season so if there isn’t room to get better Utah has a dangerously low ceiling as a team.
A need for some work was especially evident on beam Saturday.
Neff, like on floor and also vault, was the only Red Rock to score a 9.90 or better, and the highest score after her on beam was a 9.825 from Camie Winger.
Utah has proven talent on beam. McCallum has been part of elite beam teams throughout her Utah tenure, as has Amelie Morgan. Smith has been a solid contributor on that event for two seasons now and Padurariu has been elite on the event previously in her gymnastics career.
Then there’s Winger, whose 9.950 score a week ago tied for the highest beam score in the country.
For whatever reason on Saturday, everyone save Neff was off in some way or another. Or in the case of Padurariu, dealt with some potentially suspect scoring.
Dockendorf doesn’t believe any of the mistakes made on beam — notable miscues came from Smith, who had a serious balance check, and Winger, who under rotated her leap series despite hiding it well with a dance move — were especially egregious though.
They were understandable miscues that Utah has seen before from its gymnasts. Nothing out of the ordinary.
“Some of the mistakes that were made were significantly smaller than last week,” Dockendorf said. “... I mean, Makenna doesn’t wobble on beam that often, but other than that a lot of the mistakes weren’t big mistakes.”
That was the issue Saturday, really. Lots of mistakes across every event, though nothing glaring.
On vault, a couple gymnasts under rotated which led to steps back on their landings. Other than that, the miscues were steps forward or twisting early or too straight of legs on the landing. Regular mistakes that just added up.
That’s encouraging
It definitely wasn’t all doom and gloom for Utah.
Neff was a revelation. She finished with a 39.600 in the all-around — better than all but four gymnasts and only 0.75 behind all-around champ Jordan Bowers — and scored three 9.9s or better.
And the one score she got that was under 9.9 — a 9.875 on bars — was disputed by Utah.
“She definitely did show up. She was exceptional,” Dockendorf said. “She was determined and focused in, and when you watch her, it is so fun because you can tell she truly enjoys what she is doing. She loves competing. She loves going out there and being the best that she can be.”
That Neff was as good as she was wasn’t particularly surprising. She was the top overall recruit in her class for a reason and is a multi-time national champion as a Level 10.
On Saturday, though, she was by far Utah’s best gymnast — in only her second collegiate competition.
“I think that that speaks to her mental strength,” Dockendorf said. “To come out here with all eyes watching her — all these schools that were here heavily recruited her.
“She went to visit some of the other schools that were here today. For her to stay focused on the job today, it speaks to the quality of athlete that she is.”
It wasn’t just Neff.
McCallum won the bars title with a 9.975, tying with Oklahoma’s Audrey Davis. McCallum was in her element on the event, made all the more impressive given she wasn’t at her best on floor, wasn’t on vault and made some mistakes on beam.
On bars, though, she was nothing short of elite.
Almost all of Utah’s vault lineup was better this week than last. Ashley Glynn showcased enviable power with her block, even with a mistake on her landing. Zirbes had a great showing from the leadoff position and Smith was good.
Morgan subbed in for McCallum — a move that was planned, not sudden — and she was solid on an event she has rarely competed in college.
All told, there were clear areas of good for Utah, things to build off going forward this season, and clearly a lot of things the Red Rocks need to get better at.
It was Week 2 after all.
“We have lots to get better at,” Dockendorf said. “Let’s be honest.”