Red Rocks bounce back, earn season-high score to win 'Best of Utah' meet

WEST VALLEY CITY — The Red Rocks needed a change.

After a disappointing performance on beam Saturday in the Sprouts Collegiate Quad meet, in which the Red Rocks had three players fall off the beam, head coach Carly Dockendorf knew she needed to make some adjustments.

Dockendorf switched up the lineup, completely revamping its look and feel as the team started on the same event for the Best of Utah meet two days later.

A year ago, when the Red Rocks had a similar "catastrophe" on beam at the Sprouts Collegiate Quad meet, Dockendorf opted to leave the lineup the same, believing "that just happened once, it's not going to happen again," she said.

But it put the gymnasts in a difficult position, hoping that something would be different and "they were on edge of like, 'Oh, is it gonna happen again.'"

"That was a lesson I will never forget," Dockendorf said. "That was part of the reason why I shuffled it all up, because it didn't feel the same. I put veterans back in there, I took a lot of people out, I moved people around. I do think it helped with just a fresh start today."

The result was a major turnaround for the Red Rocks, who stayed on the beam and finished with an improved 49.075 even score. It's still not the score the team hopes to have in future meets, but it was a fresh start and opportunity to "flush" the previous performance.

"I was really proud of how resilient they were because it is easy to be like, 'OK, I hope we don't do that again.' It's so easy to get there," Dockendorf said. "But they really are good beam workers, and I know that this was a big learning opportunity this weekend for us."

The bounce-back effort helped the Red Rocks to the team's highest score of the season, a 197.300 and a Best of Utah crown for another season. Utah State earned a second-place with a 195.825, followed by BYU (195.725) and Southern Utah (195.675).

The Aggies opened up the meet tied with Southern Utah in third, but used the final three events to jump into a second-place finish and the second-best opening day score in program history.

Outside of a much-improved start to the meet, the Red Rocks continued to build through the night, increasing scores each rotation, before culminating in a season-high 49.625 on bars in the final rotation.

After a leadoff 9.775 score from Makenna Smith, the Red Rocks rolled off five straight 9.90 scores or higher. Freshman Abbi Ryssman started the high scores off with a stick and a career-high 9.925, before Ana Padurariu and fellow freshman Bailey Stroud added a 9.925 of their own between Ella Zirbes' 9.950.

Avery Neff closed out the meet with what appeared to the pro-Utah crowd at the Maverik Center a perfect routine — with many holding up their 10.0 signs as they erupted in cheers — but the sophomore gymnast returned a 9.90, with one judge giving a 9.850 and the other a 9.950.

It was that kind of night for Neff, who received a 9.650 on beam despite what appeared to be another strong performance. One judge originally returned a 9.85 score and another a 9.60 score with a 9.70 start value — docking her max score for a missed connection as part of her leap series.

After a conference, the two judges came to a consensus and lowered her start value to a 9.70 for the missed connection.

"It's all around her leap combination, the sider aerial to two feet," Dockendorf said. "It's unfortunate because all preseason she's been 99.9% — it's amazing, but it's not turning out like that in competition. So we'll talk about it and see if we want to make some adjustments.

"I mean, she's got so many different skills, we can definitely find something, but it is a tricky combination. It's like an E to C, and no one else is doing it in the country, for a reason, because it's very hard to do, and you do have to be really precise with it otherwise they can easily take a break at connection. So we'll probably re-evaluate later this week."

Ryssman had her best performance as a member of the Red Rocks Monday, scoring a 9.925 on bars and a 9.900 on beam.

"I just really trusted what I've been doing in the gym, like, I think I just went out there and I did what I've been doing in the gym every day," Ryssman said. "At the previous meet, I was a little unsure, a little shaky, like, oh, can I really do this? But just really trusting in my training and trusting in my teammates, too, and just trusting the process."

Overall, it was a strong bounce-back performance from the Red Rocks, Dockendorf said.

"I told the team at the end, there were so many moments of greatness this weekend," she said. "We never did a vault lineup like that last year. I mean, not like we did today, or even on Saturday, obviously; and even bars, we didn't do a lineup like that. And so for us to do that this early, there's so much potential in this team."

The three other teams had no gymnast score higher than a 9.875 on an event Saturday night. The Red Rocks' Makenna Smith won the all-around competition with a 39.475 and was followed by Neff's 39.325.

Utah State's Olivia Orengo and Southern Utah's Mia Hampton tied for third with a 39.150. BYU's only all-arounder, Ava Jorgenson, finished with a 39.025.

For a full look at each team's score, visit here.

Team scores

Utah

• Beam: 49.075
• Floor: 49.225 (98.300)
• Vault: 49.375 (147.675)
• Bars: 49.625 (197.300)

BYU

• Floor: 49.000
• Vault: 48.975 (97.975)
• Bars: 48.750 (146.725)
• Beam: 49.000 (195.725)

Southern Utah

• Bars: 48.900
• Beam: 48.750 (97.650)
• Floor: 48.975 (146.625)
• Vault: 49.050 (195.675)

Utah State

• Vault: 48.900
• Bars: 49.000 (97.900)
• Beam: 48.900 (146.800)
• Floor: 49.000 (195.825)

Red Rocks scores

1st Rotation: Beam (49.075)

• Elizabeth Gantner: 9.525
• Makenna Smith: 9.850
• Abbi Ryssman: 9.900
• Ana Padurariu: 9.875
• Camie Winger: 9.800
• Avery Neff: 9.650

2nd Rotation: Floor (49.225)

• Ashley Glynn: 9.275
• Avery Neff: 9.875
• Ella Zirbes: 9.925
• Zoe Johnson: 9.700
• Sarah Krump: 9.825
• Makenna Smith: 9.900

3rd Rotation: Vault (49.375)

• Clara Raposo: 9.200
• Ella Zirbes: 9.875
• Ashley Glynn: 9.850
• Makenna Smith: 9.950
• Zoe Johnson: 9.800
• Avery Neff: 9.900

4th Rotation: Bars (49.625)

• Makenna Smith: 9.775
• Abbi Ryssman: 9.925
• Ana Padurariu: 9.925
• Ella Zirbes: 9.950
• Bailey Stroud: 9.925
• Avery Neff: 9.900

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