Strong Worth, Texas – In a sport that wants nothing less than perfection, Utah Gymnastics was not perfect on Saturday afternoon at Dickies Arena.
With the 2025 national championship on the line, the Red Rocks did not compete in their best, at least not enough often. Whether large and small errors, they all presented themselves on the largest scene that university gymnastics have to offer.
For this reason, the drought of the national title of the Red Rocks remains in progress, now officially 30 seasons.
UTAH (197,2375) finished fourth out of four four teams on the ground, behind the national champion Oklahoma (198,0125), its UCLA rival (197.6125) and Missouri (197,2500), ending the sequence of third consecutive place in the Red Red Rocks in the wrong direction.
Initially, this sequence seemed to have continued at five consecutive seasons, but a successful Missouri score investigation concerning the routine of the Amy Weir balance beam made the Tigers pass in front of the Red Rocks in the final count approximately 10 minutes after the end of the competition.
Third or fourth, it didn’t really matter, however. For another year, the Red Rocks did not reach the ultimate price, and it hurt.
In many ways, this particular loss was extremely unusual for the Red rocks, which only added to the injury. Longtime pillars like Amelie Morgan and Grace McCallum have sometimes had trouble in their final competition as Red Rocks. McCallum’s errors were particularly strange, unlike almost all that the Olympian had presented week after week and year after year during his career at UTAH.
These errors, which included a fall in the beam and a step of the limits on the ground, combined with a few others, meant that Utah was not – apart from the first rotation – always really in the running.
By dragging by two tenths of point after having competed on unequal bars to start the competition, the Utah fell only more and more behind the Oklahoma while it was moving towards the beam, then the exercise on the ground and finally the jump.
The Red Rocks had a realistic chance of finishing second place in the general classification entering the final rotation of the competition after a large rotation of the soil, but some under -ray chests – the result of gymnasts trying to force the stuck landing – and a fall prevented this from becoming a reality.
The fact that UTAH has qualified to compete for another national championship is notable, although it does not feel like fans of the Red Rocks. Utah has the longest rescue sequence to go to the four on the ground in sport – five times on the move.
This year saw the LSU n ° 1 and the No. 3 in Florida upset in the national semi-finals, and last season at that time. 1 Oklahoma also failed to qualify for meeting the national championship.
The best programs fail to compete for a national title sometimes.
Among the UTAH teams who have contributed for a national title since 1995, the year of Utah won a national championship for the last time, the 2025 team lands somewhere near the community.
The Red Rocks have contributed for a national title 23 times in the last 29 years (the national championships have been canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic).
Eight of these teams have finished worse than the team of this year, and that does not take into account the UTAH teams who did not qualify for the meeting of the national championship in the first place, six in total.
In its 50th year, the Utah Gymnastics took a hit to make the kind of story for which the fans base is desperate. This simply did not happen because too many errors were made, too much for UTAH to be surmounted even with excellent gymnastics played.
“I think we went there and did our best,” Avery Neff the first year at the Deseret News told the first year.
Certainly thus. The first year was electric during his first national championship meeting. She finished third in the general classification of the versatile competition and her jump was the best of the competition.
Neff also showed enviable mental tenacity, well in competition both on the beam and the safe after a teammate made an important error in the routine just before that of Neff.
The experience of competition for a national NCAA title for the first time was something that she had trouble putting in words.
“It’s incredible. There is no other feeling that I can explain,” said Neff. “I told my parents all day long that it is not really a feeling that I can explain. It’s like, a little in our hearts today. ”
Neff was not the only Red Rock who presented himself largely.
Makenna Smith (sixth in the versatile), Ella Zirbes (fourth on bars) and Ana Padurariu (eighth on beam) have all impressed, in competition near their best under the brightest lights.
Ashley Glynn undoubtedly contributed the best ground routine in his career (notwithstanding score) and Elizabeth Gantner contributed for the first time for the first time this series playoffs and finished and linked with Smith for the second best score of any red rock.
Neff and Smith were provocative in defeat, Haussiers about the future of the program. The two will return next season while the faces of UTAH with the collegiate career of McCallum ended now.
They both recognized that UTAH must be better in the future – no one involved in the program is satisfied with fourth place – and are convinced that the Red Rocks will be.
“I think we can have a hungry,” said Smith. “I think we can do everything we need in the gymnasium in next season. We will come here (next year) and show everyone who we are at Utah Gymnastics. ”
Neff, speaking for his first year class, said now that they had known their first qualifying series as an university gymnasts that they wanted more.
“I think that first-year students now, especially, have a little of their tooth-dipped toes and they are going to be much more hungry than they were this season, especially myself,” she said.
“I am delighted to see what we can bring to the table. Especially during the summer, I am delighted to see how hungry we will be, to what extent we will be ready for (the) pre-season and for (the) regular season. ”
Utah was not good enough on Saturday to win a national title, which can be said of 28 teams preceded them, teams that included adults of all time like Theresa Kulikowski, Ashley Postll, Georgia Dabritz, Mykayla Skinner and Mail O’Keefe.
The drought continues for Utah gymnastics, but as always, hopes that eternal spring.
