It wasn’t your imagination.
Utah gymnastics was completely dominant against Big 12 competition this season, the Red Rocks’ first year in the league.
In the regular season, Utah finished an undefeated 6-0 in conference play. The average margin of victory for the Red Rocks in those meets? More than 1 1/3 points (1.38). Utah’s average score in conference competition was 197.3. Its opponents averaged a 196.0.
There’s more.
On an event to event basis, Utah was largely unparalleled in league play, particularly on balance beam and floor exercise.
Utah finished the regular season (and conference championships) ranked No. 3 overall on beam with an average score of 49.344. Arizona is the closest Big 12 team with a No. 20 ranking and an average score of 48.994.
On floor, Utah comes in at No. 6 in the country, with an average score of 49.394. The next best Big 12 team? That would be BYU, which came in at No. 24 with an average score of 49.044.
Denver provided a little bit of competition on uneven bars and vault, landing within two tenths of a point of Utah on each. But even then, on vault Utah is ranked No. 6 overall with an average score of 49.252, while Denver is ranked No. 13 with an average score of 49.146. And on bars Utah is ranked No. 4 overall with an average score of 49.400, while Denver comes in at No. 10 overall with an average score of 49.269.
Leave the scores behind and focus on weekly awards (gymnast, event specialist and newcomer of the week) and Utah was clearly the class of the conference.
The Big 12 Conference awarded 31 weekly awards this season (there was a tie for newcomer of the week in early February). Utah gymnasts won 11 of them. More than a third. No other team won more than five weekly awards.
Grace McCallum won gymnast of the week three times, Makenna Smith two times. Avery Neff won newcomer of the week three times too. The other winners for Utah were Ana Padurariu (newcomer of the week), Ella Zirbes (gymnast of the week) and Zoe Johnson (newcomer of the week).
Utah was even more dominant at the conference championships.
The Red Rocks beat all comers and finished more than a point ahead of second-place finishing Arizona. Utah also earned at least a share of every conference event title. Oh and McCallum was named Big 12 Gymnast of the Year while Neff was named Newcomer of the Year.
It was, in total, one of the most successful conference seasons for Utah ever.
That Utah dominated the Big 12 isn’t surprising. The Red Rocks entered the year with a 295-20-1 record all-time against Big 12 teams, a record that only improved.
No, the real question is whether or not Utah matched Oklahoma’s regular dominance in the league, before the Sooners left for the SEC.
The short answer? For one season, yes — but the Red Rocks have a long way to go to match OU’s historic success.
The Sooners won 11 of 12 Big 12 titles from 2012 to 2024. The only year Oklahoma didn’t win the conference title was in 2021, when Denver pulled off a historic upset.
During that span, the Sooners defeated their conference competition — a combination of teams including Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa State, West Virginia, Denver and BYU — by a point or more at the conference championships seven times.
Oklahoma went undefeated against conference competition (in the regular season) for 16 consecutive years, beginning in 2009.
An Oklahoma gymnast won Big 12 Gymnast of the Year 10 out of 14 possible times starting in 2013, won specialist of the year nine out of 12 times and won newcomer of the year nine out of 12 times.
Oklahoma gymnasts earned at last a share of every event title at the Big 12 championships multiple seasons, most recently in both 2023 and 2024.
As dominant as Oklahoma was in Big 12 conference competition over the last decade, the Sooners were nearly as great on the national stage.
OU won at least a share of the national title six times since 2014 and finished second another two times. During that same span, Utah’s best run on the national state was second place finish in 2015.
By winning the Big 12 the way that they did this season, the Red Rocks came really close to imitating Oklahoma’s control of the league.
The hope now is that Utah can channel some of Oklahoma’s penchant for postseason success and bring a national title back to Salt Lake City for the first time in 30 years.
Utah’s quest for its 11th national title (10th since the NCAA started sponsoring women’s gymnastics) starts Thursday, April 3, at 7 p.m. MT. The Red Rocks will compete against No. 13 Stanford, Denver and either BYU or Utah State, with the top two finishing teams advancing to the Salt Lake City Regional final on April 5.
