Beam or bust.
The gymnastics apparatus that takes down gymnast after gymnast was not kind to No. 3 Utah Saturday afternoon at the Sprouts Collegiate Quad meet at the Maverik Center.
The Red Rocks had three falls in their leadoff event, leaving them in a hole they could not dig out of against three of the nation’s top teams.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma and LSU shined in the session, finishing in a tie (197.5) with the tiebreaker tipping Oklahoma’s way. UCLA (197.0) finished third and Utah (195.9) was fourth.
Utah hadn’t finished with a meet score that low since the 2016 NCAA semifinals, and its beam score (47.875) was its lowest since 2000.
The meltdown was uncharacteristic for Utah, which has been a great beam team over recent years. It was also a bit perplexing considering junior Ella Zirbes and freshmen Bailey Stroud and Abbi Ryssman seemed to get their jitters out last week with strong debut efforts in the event.
But the trio tumbled off all in a row Saturday.
More than anything, it was a wasted opportunity because Elizabeth Gantner’s 9.875 to lead off the event was one of the better beam scores by any gymnast in the meet.
“I think there was definitely a little bit of heartbreak in there,” said senior captain Makenna Smith. “We really wanted to come out here and do amazing and show all the work we’ve been putting in all season.”
The positive is it’s early in the season and Utah has a lot of time to right the ship, but it needs to get more consistent. Consistency has been the theme over the past two meets.
“I didn’t really have the right words to express at the end of the meet (today),” Red Rocks coach Carly Dockendorf said. “I mean, there were so many good things that happened, but the bottom line is we have to be better.
“You can’t just be good on two events, or three events. You have to be good on four events, and period, the end.”
The Red Rocks didn’t mince words about the meet, but instead chose to focus on what they can build on rather than what’s already in the scorebook.
After beam, Utah had an up and down effort on floor. Avery Neff, Zirbes and Smith all scored 9.85 or higher, but a step out of bounds and a slip on a landing took points elsewhere from the lineup for a total team score of 49.05.
Then came vault, and talk about inconsistency in a meet. Utah launched on vault and hit the highest event score of the session with a 49.6.
It was an outstanding effort that shows what Utah as a team is capable of when it sticks. Highlights from vault came from Zirbes (9.925) and Ashley Glynn, who recorded a career-best and nearly perfect score of 9.975.
The biggest highlight came from Neff, as the sophomore recorded the first 10.0 of her career and the entire 2026 NCAA season.
After sticking her vault, it seemed fitting that Neff got to celebrate her first perfect score with two Utah greats who hit several in their careers in Grace McClaum and Maile O’Keefe. Both are now on staff at Utah.
“It was absolutely huge, but if you watched (the vaulters) warm up, you could see that they were ready for that,” Dockendorf said. “They’ve just been training so consistently on that event.”
Utah also found success on bars with a 49.375 score. The key takeaway from bars is that Utah is so close to an even bigger score because Saturday’s showing included steps on landings and a handstand break.
Meet highlights
Neff won vault with her perfect score, while Zirbes tied for the bars win with LSU’s Courtney Blackson (9.95).
Three gymnasts tied for the beam with a 9.95, in Oklahoma’s Hanna Scheible and Faith Torrez and LSU’s Kailin Chio.
UCLA’s Jordan Chiles, as expected, was the fan favorite on the night. The Olympic medalist and Dancing with the Stars alum finished second (39.575), in the all-around to Chio (39.6) and tied for the win on floor with Oklahoma’s Mackenzie Estep (9.925).
The all-around competition was a fun teaser for the rest of the season with Neff (39.5) finishing third behind Chio and Chiles, who are both reigning NCAA individual event winners.
Quick turnaround
Utah has a little less than 48 hours to work on things before it’s back in action at the Maverik Center Monday for the Best of Utah meet.
The meet starts at 7 p.m. and gives fans a chance to see all four in-state collegiate teams — Utah, BYU, SUU and Utah State.
Event winners
All-Around — Kailin Chio (LSU); 39.6.
Vault — Avery Neff (Utah); 10.0.
Bars — Courtney Blackson (LSU), Ella Zirbes (Utah); 9.95.
Beam — Hanna Scheible, Faith Torrez (Oklahoma), Kailin Chio (LSU); 9.95.
Floor — Jordan Chiles (UCLA), Mackenzie Estep (Oklahoma); 9.925.