The fourth-ranked Red Rocks beat Denver 198.075 to 197.525 Friday night, becoming the first team at the U to claim the Big 12 Regular Season Championship. Head Coach Carly Dockendorf believes that it should be celebrated.
“I think it’s really important to celebrate it. They worked really hard for that conference championship,” Dockendorf said. “That’s huge, the first program at Utah to win the Big 12 championship title, and we got to celebrate all our wins. This was a great win for us.”
Utah scored a 49.350 to open the first rotation on the vault. Ella Zirbes celebrated her Big 12 Gymnast of the Week Award with a 9.925 to open things up for Utah. Grace McCallum and Camie Winger both scored a 9.875. Utah trailed Denver after the first rotation 49.350 to 49.525.
“I thought vault was actually an excellent rotation for us tonight,” said Dockendorf. “There were some big vaults, and I think their landings are really starting to pay attention to where they are at, and not just making the vaults, but dialing in a little bit to where they are.”
The Red Rocks came out strong on the bars putting up a 49.550 score in the second rotation. Makenna Smith led off with a 9.90 score followed by a career high 9.95 score from Ashley Glynn. McCallum scored the first of her three separate 9.975 scores to anchor the Red Rocks, helping Utah take the lead over Denver after the second rotation 98.900 to 98.875.
Glynn credits her new career high on bars to hard work in the gym and building on confidence in her ability.
“I’ve spent a lot of time working on my consistency and building that confidence in the gym,” Glynn said. “Giving it my all every single day and going into each turn with intention and just kind of chipping away at every correction that I can make so that I can feel confident when I go on.”
Utah bounced back in a major way on beam — coming back from a season low last week, the Red Rocks turned around and scored a season high with a 49.575. Amelie Morgan opened with a 9.925, setting the tone for the rest of the rotation. Smith scored a 9.90 followed by McCallum’s second of three 9.975’s. Avery Neff made her return to the beam scoring a 9.90 — her first beam performance since her January 17 injury. Utah led Denver 148.475 to 148.125 after three rotations.
“As the beam coach, I was very proud of them. Obviously, we shuffled up the lineup quite a bit tonight. Amelie was very excited to be lead-off again, and I think it helps set the tone on that event,” said Dockendorf. “The athletes that follow her believe in her and are confident in her. To see Avery back out there, this was her first week practicing full routines. This would have been her fourth day of full routines, and it just speaks to the quality of athlete she is and character.”
Utah scored another season high with a 49.600 score on the floor. Zirbes scored a 9.90, while Jaylene Gilstrap tied her career high of 9.95. Smith scored a 9.925 and McCallum added her third 9.975 of the night. The Red Rocks scored 198.075 which set a new season high. Despite the high score, the meet was still close towards the end, which McCallum said was a good thing.
“I think it was fun. I am a score watcher. I like knowing where I’m at and so it was nice to see some good competition out there today,” McCallum said. “Just going into the last event, I was like, we’re a really good floor team, we have no reason to doubt our abilities and what we can do, so it was also good to work under pressure with a team that was closer to score with us, so we can be ready for like nationals, regions and the bigger meets.”
Up Next
The Red Rocks will get a much needed bye before travelling to Washington on March 8. Utah will then host No. 2 UCLA on March 15, which also marks senior night for the Red Rocks.
“Obviously really proud of the team tonight, I think them coming back and putting together a full meet showed their resilience,” Dockendorf said. “Their determination, and their ability to learn from some of the lessons we learned last week. To move on, move forward and take some of those lessons we need to move forward, and finish the season the way we envisioned.”
