Utah gymnastics defeated Arizona State Friday night in Tempe to remain unbeaten in Big 12 competition.
Grace McCallum climbed the program record books with a perfect routine on uneven bars, the fourth of her Utah career.
The Red Rocks posted a season-best score on bars as a team, a 49.600, which doubled as their highest event score of the season.
That was some of the good, even great, that happened for Utah against the Sun Devils.
Utah also recorded a 196.600, though, the team’s lowest score in a meet since Jan. 17, 2021. The Red Rocks also fell off the balance beam twice, had multiple major mistakes in other beam routines and finished with a 48.200 on the event.
To put things in perspective, that event score is more than six tenths of a point lower than the score Utah mustered on beam when it collapsed at the semifinals of the national championships in 2019, in what was MyKayla Skinner and MaKenna Merrill-Giles' final meet for Utah.
It was that kind of night for the Red Rocks Friday — A competition that showcased the very best that they have to offer, along with the very worst.
It was a night to remember and a night to forget.
“I think tonight just proved that they were human a little bit,” Utah head coach Carly Dockendorf said of her gymnasts. “It would have been great for us to get a big score tonight, but it doesn’t always happen the way you envision it to happen and sometimes the most important lessons are the hardest lessons, and that is truly what I am going to take away from tonight.”
Defining moment
There were two moments that took precedence over all the others Friday, and they were as different as could be.
The first was courtesy of McCallum. The senior has been great on bars throughout her collegiate career, but against ASU she was as good as she’s ever been.
McCallum has received multiple scores of 9.975 on bars this season, but she finally broke through Friday with a perfect 10.
Per Dockendorf, it was a long time coming.
“I feel like she’s earned that a few times (this year), so for her to finally get it, I thought that was really deserving,” she said.
With the perfect routine, McCallum has now moved into third place all by herself in Utah history in 10s on bars. Only Georgia Dabritz and Theresa Kuliokowski, both of whom had seven perfect 10s on bars in their careers, have been better.
McCallum stacks up with anyone in the country on bars, her skill level more than worthy of her status as an Olympian.
“I think she is just so dynamic and explosive in her elements,” Dockendorf said, “and she just has this kind of fluid movement throughout the whole routine. It’s so satisfying to watch, and, you know, that’s a big dismount and she just sticks it so consistently.”
McCallum’s perfect routine stands in stark contrast with Ana Padurariu’s beam routine.
Padurariu has been a good to great lead off gymnast for Utah on beam this season, seemingly getting better each week. During her acro series on beam against ASU, though, she flew off the apparatus.
The flight of her series went crooked, forcing her off. The mistake cost her mightily. Her routine originally had a 10.0 start value, but due to her mistake the start value of her routine dropped to a 9.8.
The deduction for falling off the beam was highly damaging, and then other little mistakes added up to Padurariu receiving a 8.900.
Normally that score wouldn’t have mattered — teams drop the lowest in a rotation — but Padurariu’s struggles unnerved her teammates and things snowballed from there.
Needs work
The obvious answer here is beam.
It is hard to pinpoint the last time Utah experienced a complete collapse like it did on that event. From the beginning with Padurariu, things were off and no subsequent gymnast in the lineup was able to recapture any sort of positive momentum or settle things down.
Makenna Smith and Amelie Morgan got close – each earned 9.850s — but even their routines had uncharacteristic, nervy mistakes. Nerves clearly bothered McCallum, too, who fell to close out the rotation.
Camie Winger and Elizabeth Gantner, meanwhile, each made serious mistakes.
Winger’s balance check prevented her from completing the second layout step out in her acro series. That mistake caused her routine to lose its 10.0 start value.
A 9.700 was the best score she could get, if she was perfect the rest of the routine. She wasn’t and got a 9.400.
Gantner’s balance check wasn’t as damaging, but her mistakes still cost her three tenths of a point, leading to a 9.700.
In was an inexplicable collapse for Utah, which entered the meet ranked No. 2 in the country on beam.
“We learned some valuable lessons on beam tonight,” Dockendorf said. “My words to the team after the meet was over was ‘I would definitely rather learn these lessons now than later in the season.’ We hadn’t had a fall on beam this year. This is the first time we’ve had a fall, and for it to be the first person up, we clearly didn’t know how to handle that kind of extra pressure on beam.
"It’s probably going to happen again, not necessarily on beam, but first person up, they could fall. It’s part of the sport. We definitely have to learn how to handle that kind of pressure and to be able to remind ourselves that we still know how to do our gymnastics and we don’t need to focus on the added pressure, on the importance of still making a routine."
Dockendorf remained optimistic, though. Utah had proven itself on beam through the first six meets of the season. One bad performance doesn’t undo that.
“I reminded them that this doesn’t change how good we are on beam,” she said. “This is a valuable lesson, and it could happen on any event. ... But it doesn’t change, like, how good we are on that event (beam).
“I know we’re still incredible on that event. Moving forward, we’re going to have to handle it better when someone has a wobble or a fall. We’re gonna have to be a lot stronger mentally to be able to keep going and doing the routines we know how to do.”
Aside from beam, Utah still left room for improvement on vault. Of the six vaults competed for scores, none were perfectly stuck (Ashley Glynn came close).
There were big steps forward by Winger, Smith and Ella Zirbes, a step back by McCallum and a leap forward by Morgan.
Utah continues to compete six vaults valued at a 10.0, but sticks remain difficult to find.
That’s encouraging
The struggles on beam wiped away much of the good feelings of the meet, which through the first three rotations looked to be one of Utah’s best this year.
The bars rotation was the standout. The lowest score Utah counted was a 9.875 from Smith (Avery Neff’s 9.800 was dropped).
McCallum’s perfect routine was obviously the highlight, but Zirbes, Glynn and Morgan all competed as well as they had this season, or close to it.
The most encouraging part? Utah actually stuck a large percentage of its dismounts, and that took the bar rotation from solid to great in a hurry.
“One of our goals was to stick five out of six bar dismounts today,” Dockendorf said. “They really worked on that all week. That was one of our focuses in practice, so to see it transfer out onto the competition floor, that’s exactly what we want to continue to see."
It wasn’t just bars, though. Utah was excellent on floor, tying its second highest event score of the season on that event. Like bars, the lowest counted score by the Red Rocks was a 9.875 from Winger (Glynn’s 9.725 was dropped).
Zirbes was better than she’d been all season and tied for the meet high score with a 9.925.
“I feel like I continue to see her confidence just continue to grow week after week, and just her enjoyment of being back out there,” Dockendorf said.
“I love watching her smile all the way through, and when she took the floor and was already smiling, I felt like she was already going to just do a beautiful routine. Just just watching her confidence continue to grow, it really fills my heart to watch that.”
Freshman Zoe Johnson may have been the biggest highlight, though. She made her competitive debut for Utah and earned a 9.90.
“We’ve changed her routine a few different times,” Dockendorf said. “First, it was a three pass routine, then it was the two pass but still with a double layout. She’s such a talented gymnast and we just felt like maybe we should just simplify her tumbling right now, get her out there, get her some confidence so she knows she can hit a routine.
“We can get fancy later with the double layout in there and some of her other skills that she’s able to do, but she’s been working really hard, and I know that she wants to be out there competing. That was a huge step for her tonight.”