Did BYU's environment impress Utah?

Prior to last Friday night’s gymnastics meet between Utah and BYU, the Red Rocks hadn’t competed in Provo since MyKayla Skinner was Utah’s star.

In the six years between that meet on Jan. 11, 2019, and Friday’s (Jan. 24, 2025), a global pandemic came and went, two presidential elections were entered into the history books and two Summer Olympics were competed.

Oh, and Skinner got married, won an Olympic silver medal and had a daughter.

Put another way, an entire class of Utah gymnasts — including Maile O’Keefe and Abby Paulson — never competed in the Marriott Center, so the current Red Rocks were naturally curious about what the atmosphere would be like.

After all, Utah and BYU may not really be rivals in gymnastics, but the overall athletic departments are.

For the most part, reviews were positive. Used to competing in the Huntsman Center with 10,000-plus in attendance regularly, Utah was nonetheless impressed with the atmosphere at the Marriott Center, with a little over 4,000 fans in the stands.

“I thought it was really fun,” junior Makenna Smith said. “I was excited to see their arena because I had heard they have a very nice arena and have a good crowd. They definitely showed that, so it was awesome to be here.”

The Red Rocks roundly praised the Cougars’ fan base, particularly the student section.

“I thought it was great. I thought there was an awesome fan group,” Utah head coach Carly Dockendorf said. “I didn’t get to see the wave happen — between beam and floor — but it sounded like it was pretty exciting. I thought it was an excellent environment to compete in. They have an excellent facility here.”

Senior Grace McCallum took it a step further, though, challenging the MUSS (Utah’s student section) to match what the ROC (BYU’s student section) put on display.

“I thought it was a really fun environment,” she said. “I think the Utah student section needs to take some notes, because they (the ROC) were hype. It was super fun.”

Utah won the meet going away, per the usual in the series, which junior Sarah Krump credited to tuning out the BYU crowd when it mattered most.

“We made our focus for that meet really on staying in the Utah bubble,” she said. “We wanted to focus on our teammates and on Utah, instead of on the crowd around us.

“The crowd was rowdy for sure. I don’t know if you noticed the techno music during beam warmup, but that was definitely interesting. For the most part, though, we as a team did a really good job keeping our energy on us and I think that helped a lot.”

Both Krump and Dockendorf praised the Utah fans who made the trip to Provo as well.

“There was a lot more red in the crowd than I was expecting,” Krump said.

“It was great to have some fans,” Dockendorf added.

Great environments aren’t always the norm in women’s college gymnastics, particularly with the recent trend of neutral site meets between four teams far away from college campuses, but the Red Rocks agreed that the environment at BYU was notable — and the crowd especially — even for a team like Utah that is used to competing in one of the best environments in the sport.

“It was definitely fun,” Krump said.