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How Grace McCallum’s magic saved the Red Rocks and sent them to a 49th straight NCAA finals

The senior led a third-rotation comeback that should go down in Red Rocks history.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Grace McCallum on the beam in the NCAA gymnastics regional finals at the Jon M. Huntsman Center on Saturday, April 5, 2025.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Grace McCallum on the beam in the NCAA gymnastics regional finals at the Jon M. Huntsman Center on Saturday, April 5, 2025.

  | April 6, 2025, 12:19 p.m.
| Updated: April 7, 2025, 6:29 p.m.

Things were tense inside the Jon M. Huntsman Center, while Trista Pleski fiddled with a TV remote in a secluded cabin more than 1,000 miles away.

With a 49th straight trip to the NCAA finals on the line, the Utes trailed at the midway point of Saturday’s meet.

“I was feeling a little stressed,” Ute gymnast Grace McCallum admitted afterward.

Not Pleski.

As she watched McCallum, one of her former students with Flyaways Gymnastics in Minnesota, anchor Utah’s floor routine, there was little doubt about what would happen.

“You don’t have to be nervous when you’re watching her, because you know that she’s got it,” Pleski said.

By the time McCallum had wrapped her routine, she was grinning ear to ear. The judges flashed their scores in the air, giving the senior a sterling 9.975 score. And the Utes were on their way to another national championship appearance.

“Well, 49 years straight, I guess we can officially say that now, so it’s pretty exciting for us,” Utah head coach Carly Dockendorf said.

It’s a streak the Utes wouldn’t have extended without McCallum.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Saturday, April 5, 2025.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Saturday, April 5, 2025.

Against the headwinds, the Isanti, Minnesota, native steadied the sails of No. 4 Utah’s postseason hopes, delivering a regional final win over UCLA, Denver and Minnesota. McCallum captured the meet’s all-around title with a 39.725 score, highlighted by a perfect 10 on uneven bars, her second of the Salt Lake City regional.

The Red Rocks spent half the meet in third place before surging ahead of its opponents in the third rotation. During Utah’s first event on uneven bars, star freshman Avery Neff tumbled off the bars onto the mat, scoring a season-low 9.000 in the event.

A rotation later, sophomore Camie Winger nervously awaited her balance beam score, while the meet’s judges huddled together to determine an accurate score. One judge initially flashed a 9.9, another a 9.6 and the two others gave her a pair of 9.8s. Eventually, they each settled on a 9.8 for Winger, but it was enough adversity to give Utah the early-meet blues.

Even the usually-calm Olympic silver medalist McCallum felt a bit rattled by events from the two rotations.

“I kind of set those nerves aside and just went up and did what I know how to do,” she said. “I really trusted my training and the practice I’ve put in, and just let it go.”

Pleski, who had watched McCallum perform since she was 6, was hardly surprised.

The moment reminded her of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics when Team USA star Simone Biles came down with a case of the “twisties,” a mental block that creates a dangerous disconnect between mind and body while gymnasts are airborne, that ultimately caused her to pull out of the games.

McCallum responded by helping Team USA win silver.

On Saturday night?

“It felt like the Olympics all over again,” Pleski said. “She knows when people are counting on her. You can look at her face and know what you’re going to see. You can read her body language, and you know what you’re going to see.”

And, just like Pleski predicted, McCallum’s wizardry commenced.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah celebrates Grace McCallum after she scored a 10 on the bars in the NCAA gymnastics regional finals at the Jon M. Huntsman Center on Saturday, April 5, 2025.

After Neff fell off the bars and others attempted their bar routines, the senior dynamo took a deep breath and leaped into her routine. She flipped and twisted through the air, sticking the landing and earning a perfect 10.0.

On the beam team, Utah’s second rotation of the night, the Red Rocks scored a 49.400, the third-lowest of the regional final. Then there was McCallum steadying the ship, finishing with a 9.95, the highest score of any Utah gymnast in the routine.

Then came the Utah resurgence on the floor. Neff clocked a 9.925. Senior Jaylene Gilstrap and junior Makenna Smith finished with a 9.95 and a 9.925, respectively.

Finally, McCallum finished what she started with her team-high floor score.

“The mindset was different,” she said. “We got excited, and we let our competitive spirits out, which I think was the biggest change from anything we’ve experienced in the past.”

McCallum lingered on the mat for a few moments, as applause and cheers echoed in the 55-year-old arena. She then made her way into the arms of her coach, Dockendorf, and beloved best friend and teammate, Jaedyn Rucker.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah assistant coach Jimmy Pratt hugs Grace McCallum after her performance on the bars in the NCAA gymnastics regional finals at the Jon M. Huntsman Center on Saturday, April 5, 2025. McCallum scored a 10 on her routine.

Later, as the regional final neared its close — and Utah’s victory became all but certain — McCallum soaked in her final moments as a gymnast at the Huntsman Center. She embraced each of her teammates. There wasn’t a high five she didn’t offer.

“Who she was doing this for was probably a very different scenario [than the Olympics],

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah celebrates their first place finish in the NCAA gymnastics regional finals at the Jon M. Huntsman Center on Saturday, April 5, 2025.

”Pleski said. “It’s for her teammates and friends and the love of the sport, rather than for the nation.”

Pleski continued to watch on from her couch, flashing through memories of Grace as a child, taking extra turns on beam and bars in the old Flyaways gym.

She thought about the COVID-19-plagued Olympics, where McCallum found a way to take home a victory for Team USA.

Amid waves of nostalgia and annoying TV buffers, Pleski reached a conclusion in her Wisconsin cabin.

“She’s separated herself from what gymnastics is and what she is,” she said. “No matter how she did tonight. She’s going to be the same person, and she’s going to be just as proud of herself as anything.”

And maybe, alongside all the perfect 10s and all the splendid Red Rock accolades, that’s what truly matters most as McCallum nears the end of her career.

“She’s able to enjoy what she loves,” Pleski said. “That’s the way she started, and I can see that that’s the way she’s ending it.”

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