Utah gymnasts win opener, but know there’s room for improvement

Utah’s gymnastics team did enough to easily win its season opener Friday night in the Huntsman Center. The fifth-ranked Red Rocks (196.625) topped No. 15 Minnesota (195.475) and No. 22 Iowa (194.825).

While the win was never ever in doubt, it wasn’t completely the effort the Red Rocks wanted. Were there some bright spots the team can build on? Definitely.

“There were some really good performances tonight, and definitely some things that we don’t normally see in practice,” said Utah coach Carly Dockendorf. “I think it’s great we had a meet to get under our belt before we go to Sprouts next weekend.

I’m definitely not sitting here like, ‘That was just so awesome’.”

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The meet was a solid effort, slightly below last year’s opening score of 196.775. This year’s team has more newcomers and new competitors in lineups than last year’s, so growing pains such as steps on landings and breaks on bars are to be expected early on, despite Utah’s talent pool.

“This was a really great stepping stone,” said Utah senior Makenna Smith. “I feel like we had some very, very good highs, and we had some things that we could definitely go and learn from, and go back into the gym and work at.”

Utah’s night started off fairly strong on vault, highlighted by Zoe Johnson’s 9.925. The rest of the lineup couldn’t muster the same result, with missed sticks on landings. The group did combine for a 49.2, which gave Utah a solid foundation to build on, and few tweaks here and there at practice should lead to vault becoming an even more solid event.

The challenge for the rest of the night, though, was consistency. Utah only recorded two more scores in the 9.9 range, while counting a handful of scores spanning 9.7-9.775.

Bars was a good example of highs and lows, with Smith setting the team up with a beautiful 9.9 leadoff effort that no one matched. Utah added a 49.15 on bars to build to its total and then produced its best showing of the night on beam with a 49.25.

Every one of Utah’s beamers scored in the 9.8 range — but consistency wasn’t a bad thing in this case, considering three of the beamers had never scored in the event in a collegiate meet, the leadoff gymnast had only competed in a few college meets and the more seasoned gymnasts had been in and out of the lineup last season for various reasons.

“I was trying not to think about that during the meet,” Dockendorf said about the new beam lineup.

“Definitely a fresh start on beam. We have a lot of girls that love doing that event, who have a really strong mind for that event.”

Freshmen Bailey Stroud and Abbi Ryssman did really well for their first times out, landing a 9.8 and 9.85, respectively. Junior Ella Zirbes was lights-out in her first attempt.

“I came to college never really thinking I was gonna do beam, so the fact that I got to do that tonight was just amazing,” Zirbes said.

Zirbes and Avery Neff tied for the beam win with 9.875s.

“So proud of her,” Dockendorf said of Zirbes. “She’s wanted to be in the beam lineup since she stepped foot on campus. She has worked so hard for it, and she spent all summer working for it.”

Zirbes was even better on floor, where she had a beautiful routine that earned her a 9.9 from the judges. She also won the all-around in her first attempt with a 39.35.

Stroud added a 9.85 on floor, but otherwise the event was surprisingly not its usual self, with standouts Avery Neff and Smith recording 9.7s after some missteps.

Looking ahead

For Utah, the next week of training will focus on just doing what it does week in and week out in practice, rather than scores.

“I think when we tend to look at the scores, (you) start to become outcome-based and you think you have to be a superhero and do something you’ve never done in practice, which is totally not true,” Smith said. “So just working on falling back to what our muscle memory knows and all the hard work we put in all season.”

Despite not focusing on the scores, they will matter as the Red Rocks face the toughest meet they of the season against notoriously high scorers No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 2 LSU and No. 4 UCLA next week.

“Next weekend is an even bigger meet and a really exciting meet, and unless we do a little better job of just focusing on us, it’s probably going to look similar as it did tonight,” Dockendorf said.

Event Winners

All-Around — Ella Zirbes (Utah); 39.350

Vault — Zoe Johnson (Utah); 9.925

Bars — Makenna Smith (Utah); 9.9

Beam — Ella Zirbes (Utah), Avery Neff (Utah); 9.875

Floor — Ella Zirbes (Utah); 9.9