West Valley City • A few weeks ago, No. 4 Utah claimed its first Big 12 regular season title.
On Saturday, the Red Rocks won their first Big 12 Championship with a 197.775 score at the Maverik Center. It’s their first outright conference title since 2021 when it won the Pac-12.
The last two seasons the Red Rocks had to settle with a four-way tie for the Pac-12 crown.
“Just really excited for the team tonight,” Utah head coach Carly Dockendorf said. “It’s our first Big 12 championship that we were a part of, and we came in here to win, and I felt like we executed that really well.”
Senior and former Olympic silver medalist Grace McCallum was named the Big 12 Gymnast of the Year.
Freshman Avery Neff, who missed a portion of the year due to two severe ankle sprains, also earned her first major collegiate award, taking home the conference’s Newcomer of the Year award.
“There’s not a ton of words to really say,” Neff said of her individual award. ”I didn’t think I would be here, and the fact that I persevered through pain, I persevered through the mental toughness of it, I think, kind of speaks volumes of itself. I’m just proud of myself that I got to this point. The trophy is kind of a cherry on top.”
McCallum added: “I didn’t even know it was a thing. Honestly, I got called up, and I was like, ‘Oh, wow, really,’ But yeah, I feel very honored.”
While Utah swept the Big 12 crown and several of its gymnasts took home individual awards, the Red Rocks didn’t have a perfect meet. Junior all-arounder Makenna Smith took a fall on the balance beam, leaving her with a season-low 9.3 in the event. The score was dropped, however, due to it being Utah’s worst score in the rotation.
Utah also struggled on uneven bars and vault, where it finished with a 49.3750 and a 49.3250, respectively.
Utah knows it will have to improve on its deductions in those rotations to make a run in the NCAA regionals. But, coming off a Big 12 championship and a win over the Bruins, Dockendorf likes where her team is at.
“We want to be peaking at the right time and not too early,” Dockendorf said. “We’re still leaving some room to improve. We have about four weeks to go, so I just think that their confidence is building, and their performance every time that they’re out there and showing that they can have the right mindset. We need to be able to be at our best when it counts the most.”
Focused on their sticks
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah’s Avery Neff hugs a teammate as she is announced as the winner for the “Newcomer of the Year” award during the Big 12 Gymnastics Championship at Maverick Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
One reason the Red Rocks were able to cross a score of 198 a week ago was due to their landings.
That wasn’t the case this weekend.
McCallum was handed several deductions on vault and uneven bars due to botched landings. She still finished vault with a 9.9, but her lowest score of the night was a 9.825 on uneven bars, the lowest of any Red Rock in the event.
“I know I want to put a lot of work into [the landings],” McCallum said. “I can stick it easy when there’s no pressure, and then when the pressure kicks in, I kind of overthink things a bit so working on that, and then I think just keeping the momentum going from meet to meet. Having a winning mentality from here on out, I think will be key for us to go where we want to go.”
Neff, who tied second for the best all-around score against UCLA, finished the Big 12 Championship with a 39.5.
She also left points on the table with her landings.
“I mean, we definitely didn’t do what we did last week,” Neff said. “There were not as many sticks and things like that. We’re focusing on our sticks and things like that. And even though we’re still conference champions, I know that our whole team is still going feeling like we can do better, and I think it’s going to push us to do even better at regionals and nationals.”
With a bye week coming before regionals, the Red Rocks will have plenty of time to correct their errors. Then, maybe, they can begin their run to an 11th national championship.
“We seemed like we kind of gave away a few tenths on some of our landings,” Dockendorf said. “Again, we don’t want to be perfect yet. When it really counts, it’s going to be at national championships. So for us to come out here and compete and do as well as we did, I think that those landings will continue to take care of themselves as we continue on.”
Utah responds with strength
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah’s Makenna Smith competes on the beam during the Big 12 Gymnastics Championship at Maverick Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday, March 22, 2025.
Makenna Smith took the first fall of her career on Saturday.
The junior was attempting to finish her acro series before slipping off the beam and onto the ground.
Weeks ago, Smith’s mistake would have trickled down into the rest of Utah’s lineup. That didn’t happen on Saturday.
McCallum followed up with a 9.925. Then Neff and Ana Padurariu finished the event with a pair of 9.95s.
“Earlier this year, when we had a mistake, we didn’t come back nearly as strong as we did today,” Dockendorf said. “For all three of them sitting here — Avery, Grace and Ana to kind of just focus on what their job was and not let Makenna’s routine affect their own performance really just showed the strength of these three women sitting here.”
“I was a bit nervous before,” Neff said. “I just kind of relied on my confidence, and that I knew what I was doing. My gymnastics is not Makenna’s gymnastics, so I just aimed to do what I know how to do, do what I do in the gym and do what I do at practice.”
If a mistake like Smith’s were to occur during regionals the Red Rocks are confident that they’d be able to respond like they did tonight.
“[We are] gaining more confidence each week and just tuning out those little things, I feel like it’s slowly starting to come together, which is good,” Dockendorf said.
What’s Next?
Utah will host the NCAA Regionals from April 2-5 at the Jon M. Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.
