Gymnastics is the sort of sport wherein perfection is the goal.
Winning is nice, sometimes even better than that, but ultimately every individual performance is examined with a fine-toothed comb. Flaws are then found, and the focus is ever on how to fix them.
After every performance, improvement is possible. No one is perfect after all, at least not consistently.
Yet sometimes, even in gymnastics, things go well enough that the flaws can be ignored. Or they can wait for a time.
That happened Friday night for Utah.
Led by Grace McCallum, on a night that was one of the best in her career, the Red Rocks couldn’t do much wrong. Nearly everything that could go right went right.
Utah scored a season-high 198.075 in a victory over Denver (197.525). That score tied Oklahoma for the second-highest score this season by any team in the country (Florida has the highest score at 198.125).
The victory was Utah’s sixth straight in Big 12 Conference competition this season, which means that the Red Rocks clinched the regular season conference title in their first year in the league.
There is more though.
Utah recorded a season-best event score on two events, balance beam and floor exercise. On beam, Utah posted a 49.575 — 1.375 points better than what the Red Rocks put up on beam last week.
Bounce back performance kind of doesn’t do it justice.
On floor, Utah finished with a 49.600, tied for the team’s highest event score of season (Utah had a 49.600 on bars last week).
McCallum finished the all-around competition with a 39.800, the second-best all-around performance of her career. She scored a 9.975 on three events (bars, beam and floor).
Ashley Glynn had a career-high on bars (9.95), Avery Neff made her return to the beam lineup and scored a 9.90, and those are just a few of the highlights.
On every event, there was a routine or routines that were memorable, almost all in a good way, and the few times the Red Rocks struggled, well, those routines were covered up and forgotten.
It was just that kind of night, a night Utah reminded the country — and maybe even itself — of its potential.
Breaking the 198 barrier for the first time this season was especially significant for Utah. The Red Rocks are now one of only four teams to do it this year, along with defending national champion LSU and the aforementioned Gators and Sooners.
“It feels really good to get the 198,” McCallum said. “I feel like we put in a lot of hard work, and to see it finally start coming together, I feel like it’s been a long time coming.
“We’ve had the pieces we need and we just fall short, so to finally have it happen, I mean, it’s unreal. It’s a good feeling.”
Winning the Big 12 regular conference title might be lower down the list of things Utah wants to accomplish this season, but it is still notable as well.
“I think it’s really important to celebrate it,” Utah head coach Carly Dockendorf said. “I mean, they worked really hard for that. Conference champions, I mean, that’s huge.
“First program at (the University of Utah) to win the Big 12 championship title. We’ve got to celebrate all our wins. This was a great win for us tonight.”
Ultimately, Friday night’s performance was the most complete of the season for Utah, only a week removed from the team’s most disappointing performance.
That, Dockendorf said, may have been the biggest takeaway from the night.
“Obviously, really proud of the team tonight,” she said. “Them coming back and putting together a full meet really showed their resilience and their determination.
“Their ability to learn from some of the lessons that we learned last week, to move on and move forward — we need to take those lessons to finish out the season the way that we envisioned.”
Defining moment
McCallum deserves any and all praise headed her way after her performance on Friday.
The senior was in her element, on beam and floor especially. Her beam routine arguably was the best of her collegiate career and her floor routine was not that far behind.
And though bars wasn’t her best, her best has been perfection multiple times at Utah.
Even on vault, where she is still coming around and scored a 9.875, McCallum displayed more explosiveness (more amplitude and distance) than on any other vault she has competed this year.
To put it simply, McCallum was better than she’d been all season against Denver, and maybe better than she’s ever been as a Red Rock.
“I feel like what’s really been working for me is just trusting my training and going out there with confidence,” McCallum said. “It’s still something I’m working on and I feel like throughout season it’s gotten better, but it’s still something I’m tuning in on and just really focusing on.”
Incredibly, McCallum’s performance may have not been the most notable of the night though. At least not the most indicative of what kind of meet it was for Utah.
Last weekend Utah collapsed under pressure on beam against Arizona State, nearly losing in the process. The 196.600 Utah recorded was the team’s lowest score in years.
Pressure got to Utah in Tempe. Pressure got to Utah against Denver, too. Ella Zirbes especially. The sophomore has been battling performance anxiety all season and before her floor routine — with the meet still very much in doubt — performance anxiety raised its head again.
She didn’t warm up like normal ahead of the floor rotation, and instead was seated off to the side with teammate Elizabeth Gantner on one side, Dockendorf on the other.
Her breathing was labored, her chin down toward her chest and it appeared she wasn’t going to be able to compete, definitely not to her capabilities at least.
But Zirbes went out and nailed her floor routine, earning a 9.90.
It was the type of gritty performance that Utah needed, a real life illustration that the Red Rocks can overcome adversity in key moments.
“I’ve had some performance anxiety this season, and it hasn’t come out the past couple meets, but it started to come out during warmup,” Zirbes said, “so I kind of just had to stop what I was doing and just kind of ground myself, and if that means less warm up, that means less warm up.”
Zirbes noted that she has formula to try and combat her anxiety now.
“I just sit down, and then Carly makes an anatomy test for me to do while I wait to go. It calms my mind and obviously works,” she said.
“Elizabeth Gantner has been a huge help to her as well,” Dockendorf said. “We just try to distract her. I don’t know the quiz she did on her shoulder. I can’t even pronounce the words, so we have some good laughs and just try to keep her mind light.
“It’s important to remind her that even when she feels like that, she’s proven now that she can still go and do a great performance, and I think that’s important for her to remember.”
Needs work
On Friday night, all things considered, there was not much that needed fixing for Utah.
There were mistakes — significant ones on beam and floor. The vault performance wasn’t up to the same standard as the other three events either, and in total, Utah had three routines score in the 9.7 range or lower.
But that was about it.
Even the Red Rocks’ showing on vault was more encouraging than not, though. Utah recorded a 49.350, the team’s second-highest vault score this season.
Only one Red Rock scored a 9.90 or better (Zirbes), but the lowest score of the night was a 9.825.
It was a good showing for Utah. Dockendorf even argued it was a great one.
“There are some big vaults, and I think (with) their landings (they) are really starting to pay attention to where they’re at, and not just making the vaults,” she said. “They’re actually starting to dial in a little bit more.”
And the major mistakes made on floor (by Zoe Johnson) and on beam (by Camie Winger) were uncharacteristic ones.
That’s encouraging
There wasn’t much that wasn’t encouraging about Utah’s performance.
The Red Rocks were elite on three events and good on the fourth.
The meet was Utah’s most complete performance of the season.
Of the 24 routines competed, half went for a score of 9.90 or better.
Nearly 80% of the routines the Red Rocks competed scored a 9.85 or better.
If there was one thing more encouraging than anything else, though, it was the ongoing return of Neff.
The star freshman had competed only on bars since making her return from injury, but she was back in the beam lineup Friday. Despite competing a reworked routine that she had only practiced during the week, Neff scored a 9.90.
And on bars, she was better than she’d been since returning from injury, scoring a 9.85.
In a lot of ways, Neff looked like Neff again, and as a reminder, she was Utah’s best overall gymnast alongside McCallum to start the season.
Dockendorf wouldn’t say when Neff would make her way back on either floor or vault Friday, but she did say that Neff shouldn’t be counted out.
“Her training is coming along really well,” Dockendorf said. “We keep monitoring it day by day. As we keep adding a little bit more, we just make sure that we’re not taking steps back because she’s more sore, and actually as she adds more, she keeps saying, ‘I feel better and better,’ so I definitely wouldn’t count her out for adding more routines going forward.”