Utah gymnastics has a long and storied history, 50 years worth this season.
National championship teams, individual national champions, Olympians and too many All-Americans to count have gone through Salt Lake City and done things few in the sport have ever done.
All of which makes history making at Utah rather difficult, though not impossible. Look no further than the recently concluded career of Maile O’Keefe.
Or if you want an even more recent example — the 2025 Red Rocks, aka this year’s team.
Monday night at the Best of Utah, the Red Rocks made program history. A specific sort of history, but history nonetheless.
The 197.950 that Utah recorded in its dominant win over in-state competition BYU, Southern Utah and Utah State was the highest score posted by the Red Rocks this early in a season. Ever.
It was the only the second time in program history that Utah had scored a 197.900 or better in the month of January, the only other instance coming in 2023 at home against Washington. But that meet happened on Jan. 28, where the Best of Utah (2025 edition) happened on Jan. 20, a mere three weeks (four meets) into the season.
Adding to the feat, the Best of Utah is considered a road meet, taking place at the Maverik Center in West Valley City. It is a neutral site, even if it is regularly filled by the Red Rocks’ supporters.
Every other time in history that Utah has broken the 197.9 mark for the first time in a season came inside the friendly confines of the Huntsman Center, including the 197.975 that the Red Rocks posted two years ago against Washington.
That Utah was able to put up the score that it did on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a score that is currently tied with Oklahoma for the best score in the country this season, was fairly surprising.
For many reasons.
Slow starts the norm
Prior to the Best of Utah, the Red Rocks had competed three times this season and their best performance came at home against Iowa State on Jan. 17.
Utah scored a 197.300 in that meet. It was a great score, better than what all but six teams have managed thus far this season. That performance marked a significant improvement for the Red Rocks, even with the loss of star freshman Avery Neff during the meet.
That’s because in the first two meets of the season, Utah failed to break the 197 barrier at all. And the Red Rocks were not overly happy about that. Mostly because it was more of the same, something Utah has hoping to get away from.
For years now, Utah has had a reputation — fair or not — of being a slow starting team. While the Oklahomas, Floridas and LSUs of the sport regularly start seasons competing at or near their best, Utah has often needed time to round into form.
There was a lot of hope from the Red Rocks ahead of this season that the slow starts were a thing of the past.
Utah believed the talent level on its team — the depth of talent especially — was going to spur a fast start to the year for a change.
That didn’t happen and left the Red Rocks looking for answers.
“We are still trying to figure that out,” Utah head coach Carly Dockendorf said ahead of the Iowa State meet. “And I think that adds to the frustration because we really felt like we were at a different place coming into our first meet. And when it didn’t happen it kind of shook all of us a little bit. We really felt different coming in here.”
Theories abounded about why Utah got off to a slow start, again, but they were mostly just theories.
Dockendorf cited the pressures of competing for Utah, a program unlike almost any other in the sport.
“This is the most legendary gymnast program out there and it takes awhile to settle in and let go of some of those outside thoughts,“ Dockendorf said. ”It takes time to go out and perform like you know how to do and let go of some of the expectations people have for you. I understand that is at every program (at the NCAA level) but our first meet out we had 12,000 people (in the stands). There is so much pride competing for this program that I thinks sometimes it takes away from the enjoyment initially.”
Grace McCallum believes the team has struggled with confidence early in seasons. Or at the least hasn’t had the same level of confidence in itself than other high level programs do.
“I think a lot of it kind of has to do with the confidence of this team,” she said. “It kind of grows throughout, where other teams you see are confident from the start.”
Key injuries and absences
The victory over Iowa State engendered a little more confidence for the Red Rocks.
Finally, they performed much closer to their potential. But the meet also hit the team hard.
That’s because star freshman Avery Neff was badly injured in the competition — she revealed this week that she suffered two severe ankle sprains and is out indefinitely — and sophomore Ella Zirbes struggled on floor exercise for the second consecutive meet.
Zirbes has since revealed on social media that she is dealing with considerable performance anxiety.
“When my nervous system doesn’t know the difference between competing a routine and being held at gunpoint,” she wrote.
The loss of Neff and the struggles of Zirbes made it seem unlikely that Utah would come anywhere close to doing what it did at the Best of Utah.
Neff had been arguably Utah’s best gymnast to start the year and has since been named the Big 12 Newcomer of the Week in consecutive weeks. And Zirbes was roundly believed to be a burgeoning star for Utah, with Dockendorf saying in the preseason that the all-around was a real possibility for her.
Utah had championed the quality of its depth, but the loss of Neff and the limited availability of Zirbes seemed to suggest the Red Rocks would take a step back at the Best of Utah.
How could they not?
Instead, the team was better than almost anyone would have expected.
It goes beyond just the high team score too.
Utah scored a 49.350 or better on every event — 49.525 on three events — which made for one of the most balanced efforts in a regular season meet that high scoring in years for the Red Rocks. Often Utah has relied on a powerhouse event or two — think balance beam. But not on Monday.
What’s more, junior Makenna Smith recorded a 39.725 in the all-around competition, one of the best all-around performances by a Ute in awhile, with only McCallum, O’Keefe and MyKayla Skinner coming close in recent seasons.
In totality, nearly everything that could go right for Utah did at the Best of Utah.
“What a fantastic night,” Dockendorf said, following the meet. “One of the highlights was seeing our team complete four events. Just do a complete meet. We hadn’t done that yet, until tonight.”
What changed?
What made the difference for Utah? Where did the massive score come from?
McCallum told the Deseret News before the two-meet weekend that the team is reading the New York Times bestselling book “Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave,” in an effort to “have the courage to take a risk and go out there and no regret anything we put out on the floor,” she said.
She believes the Red Rocks did just that at the Best of Utah.
“I think really focusing on those little details and having the confidence and courage (made the difference),” she said.
Smith, meanwhile, noted that Utah put aside some of the weighty expectations that it had placed upon itself before the season even began and actually enjoyed doing its gymnastics.
“I think we were just really having fun and were doing the gymnastics that we worked so hard for in the preseason,” she said.
Dockendorf echoed Smith’s point and added that the team’s new approach to lineups — lineup spots are available to be won on a week-to-week basis, based on practice performance — paid off it a big way.
“We didn’t want (gymnasts) No. 7 through No. 12 to think that if they weren’t in the top six (on an event) that they would never have a chance,” she said. “And I think that really showcased because a lot of those girls weren’t originally in the top six and stepped up and did what we asked them to do. It was really awesome.”
She also noted that the scores awarded to Utah early in the meet gave the Red Rocks confidence to compete at their best. And both McCallum and Smith said that Utah’s strong opening rotation spurred the team on the remainder of the meet.
Dockendorf said, however, that she hopes her team can move beyond being affected by scores, though. Good or bad.
“Scores can elevate their confidence, but something we’ve really been working on is not focusing on the scores because it can also go the other way really quick,” she said.
No matter the cause, Utah’s performance at the Best of Utah was one-of-a-kind. Never before in program history had the Red Rocks been that good that early in the season.
The challenge is now being to sustain that level of competition going forward, with Utah’s first chance to show if it can coming up this Friday night at BYU.
