In many ways, Utah gymnastics did what it needed to do Saturday afternoon in Seattle.
On the road coming off a late season bye week, the Red Rocks not only handily defeated Washington 197.225 to 195.875, but they scored high enough to replace a lower score from earlier this season in their national qualifying score (NQS).
NQS decides postseason seeding so an improved NQS is important, especially at this point in the year with only one more regular season meet to go for Utah.
Moreover, freshman Avery Neff made her return to the all-around competition. She can and has been better overall than what she put on display Saturday, but getting Neff back on all four events was a significant change for Utah, a lineup adjustment that almost assuredly raises the ceiling of the team.
There was more, though.
Makenna Smith kept competing at an elite level, and Grace McCallum, too. There were multiple individual performances, from Ella Zirbes and Jaylene Gilstrap specifically, that were arguably the best those gymnasts have done this season.
Yet when all was said and done Saturday, Utah left a lot to be desired. The Red Rocks missed a real opportunity in Seattle to keep pace with the best NCAA women’s gymnastics has to offer this season.
Currently ranked No. 5 in the country, Utah isn’t likely to slip further down the rankings than that, but a low 197 score at this point in the season isn’t what the team wanted, especially when chief competition like Oklahoma, LSU and Florida all scored above a 198 this weekend.
“I definitely was hoping for more today, to be honest,” Utah head coach Carly Dockendorf said. “I thought this was going to be a really great opportunity for us to get a little bit of a bigger road score. I feel like this team is ready for that. Their skills have been looking really refined in practice and their confidence is there in training. So...”
Utah performed well below its norm on multiple events, especially bars and vault. Of the four events, Utah scored better than 49.350 on just one — floor exercise.
The Red Rocks recorded a 49.350 on balance beam, a 49.150 on vault and a 49.300 on bars against Washington. For comparison’s sake, the team’s season average score on those events coming into Saturday were 49.470 (beam), 49.400 (bars) and 49.236 (vault).
There was nothing too egregious about anything Utah did. The Red Rocks didn’t count a fall or anything, but the team — at least a good portion of it — just wasn’t as sharp as it needed to be, as it can be.
“We seemed a little bit fragmented in terms of our proximity to one another throughout the meet,” Dockendorf said. “There’s a lot of space in here (Washington’s Alaska Airlines Arena), so I don’t know if they felt like they had the space to just separate, but when they do that, they actually lose kind of the core energy.
“It felt like some people were really here to get the job done tonight and others were just kind of here, so I think that it didn’t really spark a complete energetic performance by our team.”
Defining moment
Utah may have left something to be desired as a team, but there were notable individual performances.
The most notable, given the recent history behind it, was the return of Neff to the all-around competition.
At the beginning of the season, Neff was arguably Utah’s best gymnast, then she sprained both of her ankles against Iowa State and it seemed as though Utah would be without her for the season — at least without a Neff capable of competing on every event.
Yet there she was on Saturday competing on all four events, albeit with tweaked routines to put as little pressure on her ankles as possible.
Neff was excellent in her return to the all-around, save for on one event.
Her beam routine was one of the best of the meet (she scored a 9.925), her floor routine impressive, especially considering it was her first time competing since she got hurt on the event and her bar routine was good (Dockendorf thought better than the 9.825 she received).
“That bar routine was massive,“ Dockendorf said. ”I did a routine summary to find out where some of those deductions were that they found because that was a gorgeous dismount."
But Neff struggled on vault. She stuck her Yurchenko 1.5 in warmups and tried too hard to replicate the feat in actual competition. She under rotated her vault as a result, which led to multiple steps back.
But even with that mistake, Neff back in the all-around was a real bright spot for Utah, arguably the biggest bright spot when it comes to the Red Rocks’ potential this postseason.
“That was really exciting to see her back out there and just take that first step of doing the all round and competing the leg events that she’s been training,” Dockendorf said.
She added: “I think she was trying a little bit too hard to get the stick (on vault), but her first time back out competing — that was just important for her to get back out and do that.
“I thought her floor performance was kind of the same thing. Just so important for her to be back out competing again. I know she was excited after she was done (today), and her beam, she just keeps getting more confident. Overall, I thought that was a perfect opportunity for her today to do the all around and get herself primed for next weekend.”
Needs work
That was a lot that Utah could’ve been better at against Washington. On every event.
On bars, the biggest issue was landings. Utah had — in previous meets — gotten better at sticking landings and holding dismounts, and the team’s scores improved dramatically as a result.
Saturday, much of the team reverted back to its old ways, which meant hops and steps on nearly every dismount.
There were other mistakes as well. A few handstands that were short, leg separation moving from the high bar to the low bar and vice versa, but it was the landings that stuck out the most — the lack of stuck landings.
On vault, it was a lot of the usual. Utah has struggled all year to stick landings on vault, and only Smith was able to pull that off against the Huskies.
Smith has turned into a veritable star on vault this year but she was on an island by herself Saturday. She scored a 9.950, but the next best score by a Red Rock was a 9.825 by McCallum.
A lot of the issue was gymnast trying to go for sticks and opening up their vaults too early and under rotating as a result. Under rotation almost always leads to a step backward, which a significant deductions.
On beam, balance checks reared their head too many times, for Amelie Morgan, Camie Winger and Elizabeth Gantner especially, but even Smith was dinged for one.
On the whole, Utah just wasn’t comfortable on beam, aside from routines by McCallum and Neff.
Floor was Utah’s best event of the day, and even there, the Red Rocks have proven better than they showed, as lack of control on the landings of tumbling passes was a problem for multiple gymnasts.
Really, Utah just wasn’t as sharp as it has proven itself capable, particularly on landings, and stuck landings hold real importance in the eyes of many judges.
That’s encouraging
Beside the return of Neff plus the continued excellence of Smith and McCallum, nothing was more encouraging than Zirbes’ performance.
She competed in the all-around, sort of (she had an exhibition routine on beam), and scored a 9.80 or better on every event, including a pair of 9.9s.
Her bars and floor routines were excellent — arguably the best she has done this season — and she looked more comfortable on floor than she had in weeks, if not the entire season.
“That was the most relaxed that she’s been so far this season,” Dockendorf said. “It just looked like she was really enjoying being out there and having a lot of fun. I do think that she continues to just trust in herself more and really enjoy competing and being in the moment."
Zirbes was expected to be a breakout star for Utah this season, and at times she has looked the part. On Saturday, she did again and her performance on beam was notable.
“She kept kind of dropping subtle hints in practice, like ‘Boy I’d love to exhibition,‘" Dockendorf said. “She hits every day in practice and so we had talked about it last week, and she was like 'I’m ready to go.' I was really proud of her today to go out there and do just what she’s been doing in training."
Another notable performer for Utah was Gilstrap. The fifth-year senior has been a regular on floor for much of her career and often has been great on the event.
Against Washington, she was arguably the best she’d been this season. Her tumbling was nearly flawless, her leaps as good as they get and her performance quality as good as anyone’s on Utah.
“I thought Jaylene Gilstrap had just a stunning floor routine,” Dockendorf said. "I think that’s the best that she’s done this year."
Ultimately though, Utah wasn’t at its best, and Dockendorf believes it is up to her team to get there now — as a team.
“I feel like they know what they need to do,” she said. “We’ve done a lot of talking, and they know exactly what they need to do. They know the energy level they need to bring it to. They need to just do it now.
“It’s really up to them to kind of look at each other and say, ‘Hey, what do we need to step up,’ for them to do what they’re capable of.”
