Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
FORT WORTH, Texas — It would be easy for the Utah women's gymnastic team to make an excuse (or many) for why a return to nationals was simply unobtainable this year.
For members of the Red Rocks, the offseason was anything but an enjoyable experience.
Following an investigation into former Red Rocks head coach Tom Farden for alleged emotional abuse — an investigation that returned no substantive evidence that Farden engaged in "any severe, pervasive or egregious acts" toward his student-athletes — the school mutually parted ways with the only coach the program had known outside of Greg and Megan Marsden.
The gymnasts suddenly had a new coach just over a month before the team's first meet of the season, and the emotions of the offseason still raw and exposed.
Fifth-year gymnast Maile O'Keefe described the offseason as: "Hectic. Crazy. Emotional. Turmoil. Little bit of everything probably."
She and her fellow gymnasts suddenly became a lightning rod to outsiders who only read snippets of what they believed to be the facts of what transpired at Utah.
But new head coach Carly Dockendorf and the gymnasts moved on.
"No one's silencing us, per se," fifth-year senior Abby Paulson said ahead of the season. "We've just kind of collectively decided that we're gonna stay together as a team, stay in our inner circle, and keep anything that you have to yourself. Everyone on the team might be feeling something different; you can't say one thing that can cover what anybody else is feeling. So we're just keeping it in our inner circle and within our team, and we felt more comfortable with that.
"It was a difficult situation no matter what happened, like losing your head coach a month before the season is a difficult transition. But we're moving together, we're bonding, we're hoping to use that to our benefit and growing as a team this year."
That bond was one the team identified early. Though the offseason was incredibly difficult, it made the team stronger. Out of immense adversity came a team unwilling to back down to the fight of a long season.
And time and again, the Red Rocks answered the call — like a comeback against UCLA on the road, or an even bigger comeback in the Gainesville regional to advance to the school's 48th consecutive nationals.
And then on Thursday, with top-seeded Oklahoma as the odds-on favorite to repeat as national champions, the Red Rocks, again, pushed through the noise and went on to win the second semifinal of nationals.
The Sooners made the Red Rocks' job easier after several mistakes on vault and beam, but Utah jumped out as the aggressor and never looked back. And now, a national championship is well within reach for the battle-tested Red Rocks.
"I mean, at this point, it's anybody's race going into Saturday," O'Keefe said after the meet.
For Dockendorf, who inherited an already loaded roster, it became one of the crowning moments of her career. Though she had the talent on the roster, she continued to help the gymnasts fight through the adversity — and realize their worth as individuals more than just as gymnasts — and now her team is on the doorstep of a potential 11th national championship for the school.
"I think this is huge," she said after the meet. "I mean, I think that we had a lot of cards laid against us this season, and we could have had a lot of excuses for why we didn't even make it here, let alone making it to the final four. This team chose to never use any excuse for holding them back from what they were truly capable of doing.
"So this is, I think, maybe one of my most proudest moments, honestly, coaching, just because it really came down to them and just continuing to push through even when it felt like maybe we couldn't. They just continue to take that next step forward and finding ourselves now in the final four."
That journey didn't end Thursday, though.
There's still more to accomplish en route to a national championship. Utah left as winners of the semifinal meet, but it was far from a perfect night. That, though, is an encouraging sign, O'Keefe said.
"I think it's great that, honestly, we didn't go lights out tonight; that leaves room for improvement, or else when you go lights out and you have to do it again back-to-back, it kind of is a little extra pressure on you," she said. "So I think it's great to have a little bit to improve on for Saturday."
For one more afternoon (2 p.m. MDT, ABC and ESPN+), the Red Rocks have a chance to prove their mettle against teams they've already competed against this season. And when everything is equal, the Red Rocks will continue to fight for the top spot.
