The Big 12 Gymnastics Championship trophy is staying in Salt Lake City as the No. 12-ranked Red Rocks dramatically defended their title. Utah’s score of 197.675 was more than enough to take down No. 23 Denver (196.575), No. 24 BYU (196.175), and Arizona (194.725). It is also the highest road score of the season for the Red Rocks and the second-highest score of the season overall, just in time for regionals.
While the score looks like the Red Rocks dominated, it wasn’t smooth sailing for the team.
The usually stick-happy vault team got things started with a 49.375, including sticks from Makenna Smith and Avery Neff. That was enough to hold a slim lead headed into the second rotation, but that’s where things went sideways.
Ashley Glynn had a very solid routine until her dismount, when she was chest-down, and the momentum led to some extra steps that lowered her score. Things just got worse when the Big 12 Specialist of the Year, Ana Padurariu, missed her grip when going from the low to the high bar. She was shaken up and didn’t finish the routine. Padurariu then did not compete on beam as well, but Utah head coach Carly Dockendorf shared post-meet that the senior was okay. That meant the Red Rocks were forced to count Glynn’s 9.575.
That left Big 12 Gymnast of the Year Avery Neff to steady the ship as the rotation ended. And the usually nerves-free sophomore had to take a moment alone before her routine.
“This whole season, I felt so confident. And then before I went, I was like, oh my gosh. I have a frog in my throat. And then I’ve just been telling Abbi [Ryssman], you deserve to be in this spot, and you have done way too many turns and routines to doubt yourself. And I kind of just took that upon myself that if I say and preach the things to her, I need to take it in on myself and be that confident in myself,” Neff said. “And once I took a breath before I went, and I just smiled at the bars, and I was like, I’m just gonna enjoy this, like I know what I’m doing. And I don’t think it was my best bar set, but I was confident in making it and doing it to the best of my capabilities when I could.”
Neff’s not-so-perfect routine scored a 9.90 and steadied the ship.
The Red Rocks were then trailing Denver as the third rotation started. And Utah was going to need a big beam rotation to overtake the lead. Makenna Smith was subbed in for Padurariu at the beginning of the warm-up period, and the team was off.
The trio of Elizabeth Gantner, Ella Zirbes, and Abbi Ryssman all put up scores of 9.875. Smith added a 9.825, which ended up not being counted, as Neff added a 9.925 to her stat line and Camie Winger scored a career high 9.975.
Winger said since the five in front of her did their job, it took the pressure off her.
“It’s just time for me to do mine, and I just went out there and just did the best I could,” Winger said.
While that performance proved to be the difference maker in that rotation, Dockendorf says she has seen countless routines just like that in the Red Rocks practice gym.
“She’s really been putting in the work in the gym, and it shows up. That’s what I said to her after she did her beam routine. I was like, you never know when it’s going to show up, but it does, and it showed up in the moment where it really counted the most,” Dockendorf said.
Overall, Dockendorf was massively impressed with the team on the beam after what had happened in the rotation previously.
“We could have gone there and gotten tense and tight, and we probably would have seen a lot of wobbles and steps. And again, this team knows how to fight when we really need to,” Dockendorf said.
Utah held a lead heading into the final frame, but Denver wasn’t going to go away easily. The Red Rocks were going to need a massive score on floor, the event where they haven’t been as high scoring this season.
Things didn’t start great for the Red Rocks as Glynn logged a 9.150, meaning the pressure was on the other five in the lineup to hit.
And hit they did.
Zoe Johnson scored a 9.90 on the return of her floor routine from last season. Neff added a 9.975, and then Zirbes, Smith, and Sage Curtis put the exclamation point on the rotation with scores of 9.95.
“I think that’s the confidence we definitely need on floor. We can do anything we put our mind to on floor, and like we are all that good on floor, so there’s no reason to be doubting ourselves,” Neff said. “I think that’s just a testament of how much this team has in it and what we can actually do. We just need to do it all together.”
The Red Rocks posted a season high score of 49.725 on floor. That is tied with Georgia for the third-highest score on this event nationally in 2026.
Utah has now won seven straight conference championships and is the back-to-back title holder in the Big 12. And the feeling of being a champion is a unique one for Neff.
“We knew that if our normal gymnastics was our normal gymnastics, we could do exactly what we wanted. And me and Myia [Hambrick] were actually talking about it the other day. The like feeling is, like, when you get into bed after like, a fresh shower, and girls would understand, but you shave your legs and everything, and it’s new sheets, and get in bed, and you’re ahhh. That’s the feeling. We knew what we had to do, and we did it, and we fought till the end,” she said.
The Red Rocks will now await their draw for the NCAA Regionals. But this team has faced so much adversity, and even with a less-than-stellar night on the first two events, the consensus is clear: they are reaching the peak when it matters the most.
“We learned the the hard early in the season, and honestly, we’re still kind of learning it, but I think also that when it get comes down to it at nationals that the team that has the most fight is going to win, and we’ve really learned that fight all season, so it’s just going to make us even more hungry to do what we know how to do,” Neff said.
“When it comes down to it at Nationals, who fights the hardest is going to be the team that wins,” Winger said.
Dockendorf’s answer was simple when asked if her team was peaking at the right time.
“I absolutely do believe that,” she said.
BIG 12 EVENT WINNERS:
Vault: Makenna Smith (9.95)
Bars: Avery Neff (9.90)
Beam: Camie Winger (9.975)
Floor: Avery Neff (9.975)
All-Around: Avery Neff (39.700)
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