Before this season started, the Utah gymnastics team had pretty lofty ambitions for the 2025 season.
Sure, compete for and win a national championship was part of that — it always is — but the Red Rocks really wanted to start the season on fire.
They wanted to show from the get-go that they are one of the country’s best teams rather than wait until the postseason to prove their mettle like they had done in previous years.
That didn’t happen, though.
Too much pressure — much of it self-imposed — rattled Utah to start the year. There were glimpses of the potential that the Red Rocks had — the reason they had high hopes in the first place — but inconsistency and performances below their peak capabilities were the norm through the first month of the season.
Against Florida and West Virginia last week, Utah started to make good on its potential, though. The Red Rocks lost to Florida but were right with the Gators to the very end.
Friday night in the Huntsman Center against Arizona — the second-best team in the Big 12 this season — Utah took things a step further.
The Red Rocks had arguably their best overall meet of the year in their 197.675 to 196.125 victory over the Wildcats. Utah got better and better on each event, culminating in a season-high score on floor (49.575).
Some particular highlights:
It was one of those nights — on the same night the program recognized its alumni and 50 years of the Red Rocks.
“Extremely proud of the team tonight,” Utah head coach Carly Dockendorf said. “It was really fun to have the arena full of fans and our alumni. It was a really special night.
“I felt like our team really did elevate, across the board. Whether the scores reflected it or not, I thought we made some really important changes. People stepped up in areas that we needed to step up. Again (we hit) 24 of 24 (routines). It just keeps showing the consistency of this team and their confidence. We really went out there tonight and decided we were going to make it happen. We were going to put something on the floor that we hadn’t done yet and I really think they did that.”
Added McCallum: “I feel like as a team we are making really good progress — slow and steady progress, and that is going to get us to the finish line where we need to be. I think this is a really good place for us to be at and I think everybody on the team should be very proud of themselves for the little things they’ve been improving on.”
After the first rotation Friday, Arizona and Utah were actually fairly close, separated by a little over a tenth of a point (0.125).
Utah’s vault rotation had had its good moments — Smith and McCallum, especially — but overall Utah had underwhelmed to start the meet.
That continued, at first, to bars. The first three routines of the rotation topped out at 9.825, with a pair of scores landing in the 9.7-range.
That is when everything changed.
Starting with Amelie Morgan and then continuing with Zirbes and McCallum, Utah reeled off three consecutive routines that scored a 9.90 or better.
Morgan and McCallum’s performances were understandable. The pair of Tokyo Olympians have been stalwarts on bars throughout their Utah careers.
It was Zirbes, though, who was the best of the trio.
A second-team All-American on bars as a freshman last season, Zirbes has been battling performance anxiety this year, and her bars, while good plenty of times already this season, had never quite reached levels she had hit previously.
Until Friday.
Zirbes was as good as she had ever been on the event at Utah, recording a new career-high score of 9.950.
From start to finish, Zirbes was in her element.
“To see Ella hit that bar routine, that is what she does in practice every single day,” Dockendorf said.
After Zirbes’ bar routine, Utah recorded eight scores of 9.90 or better. Before it, there were only three, and once the bars rotation was over, the meet was no longer in doubt.
It was just a question of how much Utah was going to win by.
“It really took the entire team to do what we did tonight,” Dockendorf said. “Whether they were competing or their weren’t competing, everybody really brought their best.”
Zirbes, the MVP of the meet, especially
Utah is one of the best teams in the country on balance beam again, and on Friday the lowest score — the one dropped — was a 9.800 from lead off Ana Padurariu.
The Red Rocks had struggled with floor to start the season, but against Arizona the team posted its best score of the year, buoyed by 9.90-plus performances from Smith, McCallum, Ashley Glynn and Jaylene Gilstrap.
The lowest counted score on that event? A 9.875.
Bars, as previously mentioned, had its low points — landings were a big issue — but plenty of high points, too, and ended up being pretty normal for Utah when things were finished.
Vault, though, was the big area of worry.
Utah posted a 49.275, and that was with a 9.975 from Smith and a 9.90 from McCallum. Multiple vaults fell in the 9.7 and 9.8 range, far below the hopes for a Utah team that has six 10.0-valued vaults in the lineup.
On Friday night it was landings that proved the biggest challenge, as only Smith stuck her effort. McCallum took a slight step and the rest of the gymnasts in the lineup took major steps or multiple steps.
Glynn has probably the best distance and amplitude on her vault of any current Red Rock but landings have been a struggle for her for a couple of weeks now.
Morgan, thrust into the lineup with Neff’s injury, has dealt with under or over rotation time and again. It was over rotation that plagued her against Arizona.
Zirbes and Winger had good overall efforts until it came to the landing, as both took major steps when they hit the mat.
Dockendorf has said that she doesn’t expect consistent sticks at this point in the season, and that she believes the quality of Utah’s vaults will show come the postseason, when it really matters.
But for now, Utah isn’t consistently performing on vault to the level that it needs to, and it didn’t against Arizona.
There were numerous individual performances of note for Utah for one reason or another, but Neff’s return to action was chief among them.
Only a couple weeks ago Neff doubted whether or not she’d compete again this season, but there she was Friday night competing on bars.
She was, understandably, thrilled after.
“It was awesome,” Neff said. “Definitely beforehand I thought that my season was over, but I progressed fast and it was the best feeling to get out there and do what I love.”
Neff’s journey with rehab is an interesting one. She made quick progress immediately after the injury, but then she “kind of got stuck for a couple of days.”
As she put it, at that point she lost hope.
“Nothing felt better,” Neff said. “… and Carly could see me in the gym and my mannerisms were kind of taking down the team, too, so that was a switch where I thought, “If I really want to get back, I have to change my mindset.’ The mind is such a powerful tool.”
Dockendorf noted that in talking with Neff, the freshman set a goal of wanting to come back in time for the Arizona meet.
“I could see she was struggling mentally a little bit,” Dockendorf said. “…and for someone who hasn’t really had to sit out due to injury, it is a really new space to be in.
“We just had a really great conversation and I asked ‘What is your goal?’ and she said ‘I want to compete on alumni night’ and I said, ‘Alright let’s do it.‘ It really was her desire and her motivation to be back out here.”
Whether or not Neff makes it back on any other events this season is still a question, but she is back.
It wasn’t just Neff who stood out Friday though.
Smith continues to star on vault for Utah, and everywhere really. Her emergence this season has been especially vital for the Red Rocks’ success.
“She comes in every day and gives 100% in practice,” Dockendorf said. “She loves coming out here and is just her authentic self and I think that is one of the greatest things about her.”
Elizabeth Gantner is one of the gymnasts who stepped up in Neff’s absence, her role coming on beam, and she has only gotten better and better since she’s been in the lineup, culminating in a career-best 9.90 Friday night.
“I think confidence is a part of it,” Dockendorf said. “I think she is believing in herself a lot more. She is putting in extra work on beam, on her dismount.
“That is kind of the one area that she still needs to improve her consistency on, her landing, but I think she is honestly enjoying being out there, too.”
After Friday night’s performance, it is probably safe to say that all the Red Rocks are feeling that way right now, and it has Utah looking more and more like the team that was anticipated before the season began.
Alabama gymnastics and Utah are getting ready to take on the NCAA Championships regional final.
The Crimson Tide and Utes both advanced out of the first session. No 4 UCLA and No. 13 Minnesota advanced out of the second session and now will meet on Sunday.
The meet will start at 7 p.m. CT and 6 p.m. MT. The event will stream on ESPN+.
It’s anyone games with just .125 separating first and fourth after the first rotation.
Fuller scored a 9.825 after three straight 9.85 by Alabama to start the day on beam.
LaCoursiere gets Alabama started with a 9.85 on the beam. The Crimson Tide will go beam, floor, vault and finish on bars today.
The Crimson Tide and Utes will face off with No. 4 UCLA and No. 13 Minnesota The meet will air on ESPN+.
Maxwell Donaldson covers high school sports, Jax State athletics, the outdoors in Alabama and more for the Gadsden Times and USA TODAY Network. Find him on Twitter/X @_Max_Donaldson and contact him at MDonaldson@usatodayco.com.
If the Vancouver Canucks could hit the “undo” button on one trade in the last decade or so, it would have to be the one that ultimately landed Dylan Guenther with the Utah Mammoth.
In a draft day trade in 2021, the then-Arizona Coyotes acquired the ninth overall pick from the Canucks, which the Coyotes used to select Guenther.
Five years later, “Gunner” has five goals and 11 points in 10 career games against the Canucks — including a goal and an assist in the Mammoth’s 7-4 win at Rogers Arena on Saturday.
He’s also two goals away from the 40 mark for the season. For context, Brock Boeser leads the Canucks in goals this season with 21.
The only things the Canucks have left from the deal are a pair of mediocre draft picks from flipping Conor Garland to the Columbus Blue Jackets and four more seasons of millions in dead cap space after buying Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s contract out two years later.
But Guenther’s two points on Saturday were only half of what the game’s leading scorer, Clayton Keller, contributed. Among his four points were three goals, lining up his third career hat trick and his first with the Utah franchise.
In true Keller fashion, he shrugged off his success without even cracking a smile.
“It feels good, for sure. Great plays by the guys on all of them, so, yeah, it’s good to score, for sure,” he said.
It was an all-hands-on-deck type of win for the Mammoth, with 13 different players recording points (including five of the six defensemen). Their third win in a row maintains their healthy lead in the wild card race, though they still haven’t officially clinched a playoff spot.
Through two seasons of existence, Utah remains perfect against Vancouver. The Philadelphia Flyers and the Buffalo Sabres are the only other teams that have yet to beat the league’s newest team, though each of them has only seen Utah four times, as opposed to Vancouver’s six.
Depth is a trait of virtually every Stanley Cup-winning team. The regular season is a grind and the playoffs are even more intense, so there are always injuries. The best teams find ways to overcome them.
With a few exceptions, the Mammoth have been largely fortunate this season on the injury front — unlike last year, when two of their top four defensemen missed more than half the season. But over the last week or so, guys have started to drop.
It began with Barrett Hayton, who collided with a teammate just seconds into the Mammoth’s March 24 game against the Edmonton Oilers and is now out on a week-to-week basis.
In Thursday’s game against the Seattle Kraken, Jack McBain took an Adam Larsson shot to the leg and is also out week to week. NHL Edge lists Larsson in the 92nd percentile in shot speed, so you can imagine how much that must have stung.
MacKenzie Weegar missed Saturday’s game, too, with what the Mammoth categorized as an “upper-body injury” expected to keep him out on a day-to-day basis.
It isn’t clear what caused Weegar’s injury, though he did take a fairly hard hit from Jacob Melanson with 9:58 on the clock in the third period on Thursday. That said, Weegar did finish that shift and played another three shifts afterwards.
But Utah’s depth guys are coming up big.
Liam O’Brien, who hadn’t played in precisely two months, scored what may have been the prettiest of his 13 career NHL goals Saturday, beating Nikita Tolopilo on a move to the backhand with speed.
“He’s such a great teammate, great guy, and he grinds every single day, so that’s, like, awesome to see,” Keller said of O’Brien.
Nick DeSimone filled Weegar’s spot on the back end, playing his first game since March 10. As always, he played as if he hadn’t missed a game all year.
He was on the ice for two goals against, but neither one was directly his fault — and he made up for it by being present for three Mammoth goals, registering an assist on one of them.
And with the likes of Dmitri Simashev, Kevin Rooney, Daniil But and a number of other capable role players on the outside looking in, the team is well-equipped to handle additional adversity that may come as it pushes for the playoffs.
“It’s not just having depth. It’s having guys you trust,” said Mammoth head coach André Tourigny after the game. “Both of those two guys (O’Brien and DeSimone), I trust them. They play the right way, they’re good pros, they stay ready. (No matter) how long they don’t play, they jump in.”
“We have a deep lineup and anyone that steps in is a great player and someone that knows our systems well and can contribute. O’Brien and DeSimone stepped in tonight and were great for us,” added Keller.
Fans were treated to a number of beautiful goals on Saturday, but there’s one that stands out above the rest.
Kailer Yamamoto tipped a Logan Cooley shot-pass through his legs and into the net to tie the game early.
Keep in mind that Yamamoto is a guy who spent nearly all of last season in the minors and has watched a lot of games from the press box this year. It takes immense amounts of skill and confidence to pull off a move like that in an NHL game, and Yamamoto has plenty of both.
I said it on X and I’ll repeat it here: As long as players like Yamamoto are on the fringe of NHL rosters, I refuse the notion that expansion over-dilutes the game. More than ever before, the number of elite hockey players far exceeds the amount of NHL roster spots.
Yamamoto and plenty of others in similar positions deserve to be permanent, full-time NHLers with no fear of losing their jobs. Keep expanding.
SALT LAKE CITY — A repeat sex offender who was getting another chance at freedom is back behind bars after a civilian predator hunter group confronted him inside a halfway house in Salt Lake City.
Predator Poachers, the group run by Alex Rosen, baits online predators using “decoy accounts” set up to look like online profiles belonging to minors. They then travel from state to state confronting their “catches,” filming the confrontations to post content online, then calling local law enforcement in the hopes they’ll make an arrest.
At the end of March, Rosen and his team arrived in Utah and filmed confrontations with four men including Chase Quinton, 37, who had recently been granted parole and was living in a Utah Department of Corrections community correctional center, or halfway house.
As the KSL Investigators have reported, predator hunter groups present a unique challenge for law enforcement. Officials never want to encourage civilians getting involved in confronting potentially violent criminals. At the same time, Predator Poachers is regularly credited with stopping would-be sex crimes against children.
“I’ve got a package here for ya,” Rosen is heard in Predator Poachers’ video as Quinton responds to the lobby of the halfway house.
“He came down for his package, and in the lobby I interviewed him for like 15 minutes in hushed tones, and he admitted he was communicating to underage kids online and downloading apps he was not allowed to have on parole,” Rosen told the KSL Investigators.
During the confrontation, corrections officers can be seen walking through the background of the video. At one point, Rosen zooms in on the large Utah Department of Corrections logo on the wall behind Quinton, telling him, “Literally being in the Department of Corrections’ custody, you cannot be texting underage kids.”
After Quinton admitted to sending the messages on camera, Rosen involved a nearby corrections officer who immediately confiscated the parolee’s phone.
“It was, like, ‘We caught him in the halfway house!’ He was messaging two fake decoy accounts he believed were two underage kids,” Rosen told KSL. “And he wanted one of them to sneak out of their house in his mind and meet him.”
Quinton was returned to custody on a parole violation and is currently at the Salt Lake County Jail.
“He was going on a path that led him right back to where he belonged in this case, and that’s in prison,” said Spencer Turley, deputy executive director of the Utah Department of Corrections.
Turley said the department is grateful it was Predator Poachers — and not real children — on the other end of those messages.
“One of the things that we would ask is that they, rather than just outright confronting the person, is bring it to us first, so that we can then confront them, and we can address them,” said Turley. “Some of that reduces evidentiary challenges when we get to court and prosecutors start looking at prosecuting the case.”
In the video captured by Predator Poachers, Quinton is shown confessing to a corrections officer, “A week and a half ago I downloaded an app. I had gotten high on meth.”
Turley said Quinton had recently passed a drug test and that just days before the incident, corrections officers had searched his phone.
“If he’s out there actively engaging in sexual conversations online, I have no doubt we would have caught it,” said Turley.
Quinton was convicted of his first sex offense in 2018. He went to a park with condoms in his coat pocket to meet a 13-year-old girl, but found law enforcement there instead.
After his first release on parole, he was convicted of a similar crime in Idaho in 2022.
The new conviction counted as a parole violation in the initial case, which prompted another stay in Utah’s prison system.
During a hearing in July last year, he tearfully asked Utah’s Board of Pardons and Parole for another chance.
“I do plan on doing better this time,” he said.
(Quinton) was going on a path that led him right back to where he belonged in this case, and that’s in prison.
According to a spokesperson for the parole board, Utah’s sentencing guidelines call for a 180-day sentence in response to a person’s first three parole violations. Quinton was most recently paroled in December, which meant the board kept him in custody longer than the standard amount of time after his additional conviction in Idaho.
“Your next hearing or release date is beyond the parole violation guideline because the board finds a public safety exception,” the board’s decision stated. “A public safety exception means the board finds that your conduct has or may present a substantial threat to public safety.”
Quinton spent three additional days in jail as a sanction in January, according to parole board documents.
“After he’d been out about two weeks, we did a phone check, and we found some adult pornography on his phone,” Turley explained.
While the content was not illegal, it did violate his release conditions. After spending a few days in jail, Quinton returned to the halfway house.
“One of the parameters of getting his phone back in that case was that he had to participate in sex offender treatment, and until his therapist felt like he was at a place to be responsible with the phone, we would not give it back to him,” said Turley.
He said the department gave Quinton back his phone about six weeks later, at the direction of his therapist.
“He’s not even the first sex offender we caught that day,” said Rosen.
Quinton is one of four men Rosen and his team confronted in Utah last month. Two of them were already convicted of sex crimes.
According to a police booking affidavit, David Burris was previously convicted of sexual abuse of a child. Rosen confronted him in Brigham City, where police arrested him.
“Utah’s prison system, judges and parole board need to go hard on these people,” said Rosen. “These sex offenders should not be available for us to catch.”
The KSL Investigators are still working to confirm law enforcement records related to the other two men.
Utah’s parole board has jurisdiction over Quinton through 2032 and will ultimately decide what happens to him next. Turley said the Department of Corrections will be recommending he serve additional prison time.
Turley said investigators are also performing forensic analysis on his phone to find out whether there were any real victims involved.
Have you experienced something you think just isn’t right? The KSL Investigators want to help. Submit your tip at investigates@ksl.com or 385-707-6153 so we can get working for you.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
South Carolina vs TCU predictions for Elite Eight game in March Madness
1 teenage girl killed, another injured in shooting at Piedmont Park, police say
Skier dies after fall at Sugarbush Resort
Vaazha 2 first half review: Hashir anchors a lively, chaos-filled teen tale
Trump’s Ballroom Design Has Barely Been Scrutinized
Fetishist ‘No Kings’ protester in mask drags ‘Trump’ and ‘JD Vance’ behind her wheelchair
Inside Ye’s first comeback show at SoFi Stadium
JD Vance says he was ‘obsessed’ with UFOs, believes aliens are actually ‘demons’
