Given that it was the team’s third meet in eight days, Utah gymnastics would have been forgiven for having a rough outing at BYU.
After all, the Red Rocks hadn’t had much, if any, time to train or rest since they competed against Iowa State last weekend. Which meant they had little to no time to work on improving their routines and eliminating deductions.
What’s more, Friday’s meet was the first time that the Red Rocks had competed in Provo since 2019. None of the current Utah gymnasts had ever competed in the Marriott Center before.
An unfamiliar environment in front of a hostile crowd could have been a recipe for a step back.
Throw in the massive score Utah registered at the Best of Utah on Monday — at that time, it was tied for the highest score by any team so far this season — and a let down was more than possible for the Red Rocks.
Combine all that together and Utah probably shouldn’t have done all that well Friday night.
That didn’t happen though.
Led by the all-around duo of Grace McCallum and Makenna Smith, who tied for the all-around title, Utah cruised against rival BYU, winning a 48th consecutive meet against the Cougars, and the second already this year.
And though the scores didn’t reflect it very often, it may have been Utah’s best meet of the season so far.
“I thought our meet was great tonight,” McCallum said. “I thought everybody made slow and steady progress. I know the scores didn’t necessarily reflect that, but that is out of our control. I think we should walk away from the meet feeling really proud of what we put out on the floor today.”
Head coach Carly Dockendorf shared a similar sentiment.
“I feel like their quality of gymnastics tonight was excellent,” she said.
Making that all the more impressive was the scoring — or lack thereof.
Utah counted just four scores of 9.90 or better Friday — three of those came from McCallum — and the highest event score for the Red Rocks was a 49.350 earned on balance beam.
The scoring was tight. All night long. And in the past, even just a couple of weeks ago, Utah would have been bothered by that. It would have affected how the Red Rocks competed.
After scoring bothered her team in Oklahoma City in Week 2 of this season, it became a goal of Dockendorf’s for the Red Rocks to learn to not get affected by judging, be it in Utah’s favor or not.
And by all accounts the Red Rocks did just that against BYU.
“I thought they did an excellent job,” Dockendorf said. “I thought Makenna started us off with a really nice routine and it was clear (then) how the scoring was going to be. We just stayed focused on us, kept doing our job and didn’t even think about the scores.”
As a result, Utah walked away with maybe its best meet this year.
Defining moment
At no point was the outcome of the meet really in doubt.
Utah’s dominance over BYU in women’s gymnastics has been established over decades now.
The meet — and this will be the case for the majority of Utah’s regular season meets this year — was a lot more about Utah bettering itself than any sort of head-to-head competition.
And it didn’t take long for a routine that said that the Red Rocks were going to have one of their better meets.
Sophomore Ella Zirbes has had an up-and-down year so far, after entering the season with expectations that she’d become one of Utah’s best gymnasts.
At the Best of Utah, Zirbes competed on a single event — vault — after having started the year on three events and hoping for an eventual spot in the all-around.
Performance anxiety had worked against her, she announced on TikTok early this week. But against BYU, Zirbes was back on bars (in addition to vault) and her routine was back to showing what she is capable of.
It was the kind of routine that Utah needed from Zirbes last year in order to compete with the best teams in the country. And it was the kind of routine that Utah will likely need this year too.
To have Zirbes compete it so soon after some serious struggles was notable. And Utah never looked back after that effort from Zirbes. Her bar routine put the Red Rocks out of the reach of BYU before the first rotation was even over.
Needs work
Given it is still January, Utah has plenty to improve upon.
Score-wise on Friday, floor was the weak point.
The Red Rocks finished that event with a 49.175, by far Utah’s worst event score of the night.
After a solid leadoff routine from Smith, Utah recorded three straight 9.8’s on floor. That sequence of scores on floor probably hasn’t happened to the Red Rocks in the past decade. Certainly not in the past five years.
There were mistakes in the routines, be it lack of control on the landings of tumbling passes, leaps that were short of 180 degrees, etc.
Nothing egregious though.
That, Dockendorf said, is kind of the deal with Utah right now.
There are mistakes being made on every event, often the same ones from meet to meet. But most, if not all, are correctable.
And now that the three-meet in eight days stretch of the season is over, Utah will have time to work on needed corrections.
“We definitely have some deductions that we need to work on and get back into the gym,” Dockendorf said. “We haven’t really had any time to train. We have some common mistakes that we are making that we need to start working on and iron out in practice so they stop showing up.”
That’s encouraging
At the same time, there is a lot of good that Utah has put on display recently. Friday night included.
Consistency being chief among the good stuff on display.
Over the past three meets, Utah hasn’t had a single fall. The Red Rocks have successfully completed all 24 of their routines in all three meets, plus exhibition routines.
“That is what I really love right now,” Dockendorf said. “... Just showing stamina to be able to do all those meets is huge.”
McCallum was been excellent, particularly on bars and beam. Her vault has been a struggle but she is competing a 10.0-valued vault and steadily getting more and more comfortable.
Smith has taken a leap in the absence of freshman Avery Neff.
She has won back-to-back all-around titles and has competed at a new level.
“I thinks she is just more confident in herself,” Dockendorf said.
“Not that Makenna lacks confidence,” she added with a wry smile.
“It is tough to go out and do four events week after week and I think she is just settling in to her routines and believing in herself and enjoying being out there competing.”
It isn’t just the all-arounders who’ve impressed, though.
Camie Winger continues to have a really strong sophomore campaign.
She scored a 9.875 on both beam and vault and her emergence has been vital for Utah’s success this season.
An Orem native, competing at BYU was a unique experience for her, in large part because many of the Cougars are her former teammates.
“It was super fun with it being so close to home,” she said. “And having a lot of teammates on BYU.”
She didn’t disappoint,
Sarah Krump and Elizabeth Gantner have both had to take on a larger role the last two meets, with the injury to Neff, and both have settled in — Krump on floor and Gantner on beam.
They have validated Utah’s claims of improved depth at the least. And more seriously made a case for their permanent inclusions in lineups with their performances.
They have also demonstrated what McCallum believes is the strength of this year’s team.
“I think we are so open to change,” she said. “I think we recognize things that we may need improvements on and then the next week that is on our agenda and we are going to fix it is because we know we can. I think that is amazing about this team.”