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Utah's Grace McCallum competes on the uneven bars during the NCAA women's gymnastics championships in Fort Worth, Texas, Saturday, April 19, 2025. | Tony Gutierrez
FORT WORTH, Texas — In a sport that wants nothing short of perfection, Utah gymnastics was not perfect Saturday afternoon at Dickies Arena.
With the 2025 national championship on the line, the Red Rocks did not compete at their best, at least not often enough. Be it big and little mistakes alike, they all showed up on the biggest stage college gymnastics has to offer.
Because of that, the Red Rocks’ national title drought remains ongoing, now officially 30 seasons long.
Utah (197.2375) finished fourth out of four teams at Four on the Floor, behind national champion Oklahoma (198.0125), rival UCLA (197.6125) and Missouri (197.2500), ending the Red Rocks’ streak of consecutive third-place finishes in the wrong direction.
Initially, that streak appeared to have continued to five straight seasons, but a successful score inquiry by Missouri regarding Amy Weir’s balance beam routine bumped the Tigers past the Red Rocks in the final tally about 10 minutes after the competition ended.
Third or fourth, it didn’t really matter, though. For yet another year the Red Rocks came short of the ultimate prize, and it hurt.
In a lot of ways, this particular loss was extremely uncharacteristic for the Red Rocks, which only added to the hurt. Longtime stalwarts like Amelie Morgan and Grace McCallum struggled at times in their final competition as Red Rocks. McCallum’s mistakes were particularly strange, unlike nearly anything the Olympian had put on display week after week and year after year during her career at Utah.
Those mistakes, which included a fall off the beam and a step out of bounds on floor, combined with a few others, meant that Utah wasn’t — outside of the first rotation — ever really in contention.
Trailing by two tenths of a point after competing on uneven bars to start the meet, Utah only fell further and further behind Oklahoma as it moved to beam, then floor exercise and finally vault.
The Red Rocks did have a realistic chance to finish second overall entering the final rotation of the meet after a great floor rotation, but a couple of under-rotated vaults — the result of gymnasts trying to force stuck landings — and a fall prevented that from becoming a reality.
That Utah qualified to compete for yet another national championship is notable, although it might not feel like it for Red Rocks fans. Utah has the longest standing streak of making it to the Four on the Floor in the sport — five times running.
This year saw No. 1 LSU and No. 3 Florida upset in the national semifinals, and last season then-No. 1 Oklahoma failed to qualify to the national championship meet, too.
The best programs fail to compete for a national title at times.
Among the Utah teams that have competed for a national title since 1995, the year Utah last won a national championship, the 2025 team lands somewhere close to the middle.
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Utah poses with the trophy after earning fourth place in the NCAA women's gymnastics championships in Fort Worth, Texas, Saturday, April 19, 2025. | Tony Gutierrez
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Utah's Jaylene Gilstrap competes on the floor exercise during the NCAA women's gymnastics championships in Fort Worth, Texas, Saturday, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez) | Tony Gutierrez
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Utah's Grace McCallum competes on the floor excercise during the NCAA women's gymnastics championships in Fort Worth, Texas, Saturday, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez) | Tony Gutierrez
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Utah fans cheer on their team during the NCAA women's gymnastics championships in Fort Worth, Texas, Saturday, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez) | Tony Gutierrez
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Utah's Grace McCallum competes on the balance beam during the NCAA women's gymnastics championships in Fort Worth, Texas, Saturday, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez) | Tony Gutierrez
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Utah's Avery Neff competes on the floor exercise during the NCAA women's gymnastics championships in Fort Worth, Texas, Saturday, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez) | Tony Gutierrez
The Red Rocks have competed for a national title 23 times in the last 29 years (the national championships were canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic).
Eight of those teams finished worse than this year’s team, and that doesn’t take into account the Utah teams that didn’t qualify for the national championship meet in the first place, six in total.
In its 50th year, Utah gymnastics gave itself a shot to make the kind of history the fanbase is desperate for. It just didn’t happen as too many mistakes were made, too many for Utah to overcome even with some of excellent gymnastics performed.
“I think we went out there and did the best that we could,” freshman Avery Neff told the Deseret News.
Neff certainly so. The freshman was electric in her first national championship meet. She finished third overall in the all-around competition and her vault was the best in the meet.
Neff showed enviable mental toughness too, competing well on both beam and vault after a teammate made a significant mistake in the routine just prior to Neff’s.
The experience of competing for a NCAA national title for the first time was something she struggled to put into words.
“It’s amazing. There is no other feeling I can explain,” Neff said. “I was telling my parents all day that its not really a feeling I can explain. It’s just like, kind of in our hearts all today.”
Neff wasn’t the only Red Rock who showed up in a big way.
Makenna Smith (sixth in the all-around), Ella Zirbes (fourth on bars) and Ana Padurariu (eighth on beam) all impressed, competing close to their best under the brightest lights.
Ashley Glynn competed arguably the best floor routine of her career (score notwithstanding) and Elizabeth Gantner competed on beam for the first time this postseason and finished and tied with Smith for the second-best score by any Red Rock.
Neff and Smith were defiant in defeat, bullish about the future of the program. The two will return next season as the faces of Utah with McCallum’s collegiate career now finished.
They both acknowledged that Utah has to be better going forward — no one involved with the program is satisfied with the fourth-place finish — and are confident that the Red Rocks will be.
“I think we can just be hungrier,” Smith said. “I think we can do everything we need to in the gym over this next season. We are going to come out here (next year) and show everyone who we are at Utah gymnastics.”
Neff, speaking for her freshman class, said now that they’ve experienced their first postseason as college gymnasts they want more.
“I think the freshmen now, especially, have a little bit of their toes dipped in the water and they’re gonna be a lot hungrier than they were this season, especially myself,” she said.
“I’m excited to see what we can bring to the table. Especially over the summer, I’m excited to see how hungry we will be, how ready we will be for (the) preseason and for (the) regular season.”
Utah wasn’t good enough Saturday to win a national title, something that can be said of 28 teams that preceded them, teams that included all-time greats like Theresa Kulikowski, Ashley Postell, Georgia Dabritz, MyKayla Skinner and Maile O’Keefe.
The drought continues for Utah gymnastics, though as ever, hopes spring eternal.
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Utah's Avery Neff competes on the floor exercise during the NCAA women's gymnastics championships in Fort Worth, Texas, Saturday, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez) | Tony Gutierrez
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