No. 3 Utah Gymnastics Heads to Maverik Center for Quad-Meets

Saturday, January 10

West Valley City/Maverik Center

2:00 P.M.

University of Utah

Oklahoma

Photo by: Misty-Jade Carlson

No. 3 Utah Gymnastics Heads to Maverik Center for Quad-Meets

1/6/2026 10:35 AM | Gymnastics

Week Two/Three Notes

Red Rocks ready to compete in Sprouts Farmers Market and Best of Utah

SALT LAKE CITY – The No. 3 Red Rocks have a busy week two/three after their season opening victory over No. 15 Minnesota and No. 22 Iowa (196.625-195.475-194.825). Utah now turns their attention to two quad-meets in a three-day span at the Maverik Center in West Valley, Utah.

First up, the Red Rocks will size up against some of the best teams in the country in No. 1 UCLA, Oklahoma, and LSU in the third annual Sprouts Farmers Market quad-meet on Saturday, Jan. 10 with a 2 p.m. MT start time on ABC.

Utah then takes on the local schools (BYU, Utah State, and Southern Utah) in the Best of Utah meet on Monday, Jan. 12 at 7 p.m. MT to determine gymnastics bragging rights in the state for 2026. That meet will air on ESPN+/BYU TV.

QUICK STICKS

Head coach Carly Dockendorf heads into her third season at the helm of the Red Rocks and ninth season overall in 2026.
Dockendorf will be joined by 12 returners from last season's team including senior Makenna Smith and sophomore Avery Neff, and welcomes four freshmen to the mix in Norah Christian, Sage Curtis, Abbi Ryssman, and Bailey Stroud.
Junior Ella Zirbes made her debut in the all-around in week one of the 2026 season notching her first win in the event (39.350) to go along with wins on beam (9.875) and floor (9.90). Zirbes currently ranks second in the country in the all-around.
The Red Rocks recently announced a big, multi-year NIL partnership with local company Redmond (1/5/26) that will provide Utah Gymnastics with fresh, healthy meals, and electrolyte products during the 2026 season, as well as provide funds for future international service trips to be announced at a later date.
Two Red Rocks legends remain on staff for Utah Gymnastics in 2026 with Maile O'Keefe taking on an Operations Specialist position and recently graduated Grace McCallum moving into the Student Assistant Coach role.
Utah Gymnastics clinched Utah Athletics' first two Big 12 Titles since joining the league before the 2024 fall sports season began. The Red Rocks won the Big 12's Regular Season Championship outright on 2/21, and clinched the Big 12 Championship on 3/22. In 2014, Utah Gymnastics was responsible for Utah Athletics' first Pac-12 Title, four years after the Utes made the jump to the league from the Mountain West Conference.

CHALK TALK

Dockendorf is in her third season leading the Red Rocks program and her ninth overall with Utah Gymnastics.
In 2024 Dockendorf became the first head coach in NCAA history to lead a team to the Final Four in her first year as head coach, earning the highest finish (3rd-place) by any first-year head coach.
Utah returns 18-of-24 routines from last year's team, which finished in fourth place at the NCAA Championships.
Utah's roster contains three All-Americans: Makenna Smith (10x), Avery Neff (4x), and Ella Zirbes (3x).
Smith will seek to end her productive career with a bang currently sitting at 174 hit routines out of 175 in her career and 35 total event victories and counting.
Neff will take on a bigger role for the Utes in 2026 after showing the college gymnastics world what she was made of as a freshman and No. 1 recruit last season. Despite missing time with injury, Neff racked up the accolades earning four All-American nods, Regional All-Around and Vault Champion, 2025 Big 12 Newcomer of the Year, 2025 All-Big 12 Freshman Team selection, 2025 Big 12 Beam Champion, and eight total career wins.
Utah has amassed 120 perfect 10.0 scores all-time, with 84 of those performances coming at home in the Jon M. Huntsman Center.

LAST TIME OUT

Utah secured its first win of the 2026 season (196.625) against No. 15 Minnesota (195.475) and No. 22 Iowa (194.825) in front of 11, 191 fans at the Huntsman Center on 1/2/26.
Junior Ella Zirbes won the all-around (39.350) in her debut on the event including a first career start and win on beam (9.875) and a win on floor (9.90).
Zirbes' performance puts her second in the county in the all-around after week one of competition and tied ninth on bars and beam, and tied third on floor.
Sophomore Zoe Johnson won vault (9.925) while senior Makenna Smith took the bars (9.90) and sophomore Avery Neff split beam with Zirbes (9.875).

RED ROCKS RETURNING DEPTH

Utah returns nine contributing members of the squad from last season, including four All-Americans: Makenna Smith (7 NCAA, 3 RS), Avery Neff (3 NCAA, 1 RS), Ella Zirbes (3 NCAA), and Camie Winger (1 RS).
As of the end of the 2025 season, Smith hit 171 of 172 routines in her career and 34 career victories.
Neff earned her first all-around win (39.650) during the Regional Semifinal while also cementing herself as the vault champion. She was named the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year, All-Big 12 Freshman Team, and 2025 Big 12 Beam Champion.
Zirbes continued her growth with the Utes as a steady performer on three events (vault, bars, floor) making the All-Big 12 vault and bars team while notching four wins in 2025 (1 vault, 2 bars, 1 floor).
Winger starts her junior campaign as a reigning member of the All-Big 12 Beam Team and notching two event wins in 2025 on beam and floor.
Ashley Glynn and Ana Padurariu join Smith as a senior providing steady results in three and two events respectively. Glynn hit all 61 of her routines as a Ute in her first two seasons with the program and was named to the 2025 All-Big 12 Vault Team and was the 2025 Big 12 Vault Co-Champion. Padurariu matched her career-high on beam last season (9.95) in the Big 12 Championship, earning her Co-Champion on beam.

NEW KIDS ON THE ROCKS

Utah welcomed four new faces to the program this year, with the addition of Norah Christian, Sage Curtis, Abbi Ryssman, and Bailey Stroud.
Christian brings all-around ability from the state of Washington where she trained with Cascade Elite Gymnastics West.
Locally grown Curtis comes to the Utes as the 2024 Level 10 national champion and Region 1 champion on vault.
Ryssman joins Utah after earning the 2025 Level 10 national title on bars and the Region 4 title on bars and beam, while finishing as the all-around runner-up.
Stroud adds a strong resume to the mix having notched the 2024 Level 10 titles for all-around and beam, and cleaning up that the Region 5 champion on vault, beam, floor, and the all-around.

UP NEXT

Utah will have nearly two weeks off before hitting the road for the first time in 2026 to take on Big 12 conference-mate, Iowa State, in a nationally televised meet on ESPN on Sunday, Jan. 25 at 12 p.m. MT.