The No. 12 Utah Red Rocks won the Big 12 Championship on March 21, securing their second consecutive title since joining the conference in 2024. The team finished with a final score of 197.675, outperforming their Big 12 opponents at the event held in West Valley City.
This victory highlights Utah’s continued success in collegiate gymnastics and demonstrates the team’s ability to perform under pressure as they prepare for upcoming NCAA Regionals.
Head coach Carly Dockendorf said, “I’m just so proud of this team tonight. Winning conference championships is not something you can take for granted, and this team fought the entire night to stay in the meet. I’m just really proud of their great resilience throughout the competition. There were some great individual performances– I thought we started off really strong on vault, and if we had a mistake we just carried on and didn’t let up. Going into Regionals, it’s not going to be perfect. It’s not going to be smooth, but we really feel like we’ve, again, we just keep adding to our list of adversity we keep learning from.”
Avery Neff led the all-around standings for Utah, followed by Makenna Smith in second and Ella Zirbes in third place. The Red Rocks also claimed individual event titles: Smith won vault (9.95), Neff took bars (9.90) and floor (9.975), while Camie Winger earned beam honors with a career-high score of 9.975.
Ana Padurariu was named Specialist of the Year and Neff received Gymnast of the Year honors as part of the Big 12 End of Year awards.
Utah began strongly on vault with a team score of 49.375 before facing challenges on bars but regaining momentum on beam and finishing with their highest floor score of the season (49.725). Notable performances included Zoe Johnson tying her career-best floor score (9.90) and Sage Curtis setting a new personal best (9.95).
The Red Rocks will learn about their NCAA Regional placement on Monday, March 23 at 10 a.m., with coverage available on ESPNU.
