'Pretty magical night': Red Rocks showcase talent, depth ahead of 2025 season

SALT LAKE CITY — It didn't take long for freshman Avery Neff to make a splash with the Red Rocks.

The Utah native and No. 1 overall gymnast as part of the 2024 recruiting class made her debut a one to remember for the program she dreamed about performing for since she was a young girl.

In Friday night's Red Rocks preview, Neff delivered a flawless vault performance — a 1.5 Yurchenko that is a 10.0 start value — that concluded with a perfect stick for her first ever event as a member of the team.

And though not part of actual competition for the 2025 season, it was a dream come true for Neff — and for a No. 5 Red Rocks team that will rely on her talent as it works to compete for a national championship in school's 50th season.

"What an entrance into the Huntsman," Red Rocks head coach Carly Dockendorf said. "Then again, I was thinking, I'm like, would she have done it any other way? No, she would not have. (What's) better than just dropping a perfect one and a half for her very first routine in the Huntsman."

An excited Neff had a tough time containing her excitement after the preview meet that included 43 routines to showcase arguably the deepest roster in Red Rocks history.

"Oh my goodness, it was a dream come true," Neff said. "I think I've literally dreamed of this. Like, no kidding, I dreamed about this a couple weeks ago. So it was the greatest night. I feel like I was just on cloud nine the whole night. I couldn't get a smile off my face. Every event I'd go to, I'd be like, 'Oh my goodness, I just dreamed about this.'

"It was so cool that I finally got to have that dream come true and kind of just give it my all and have fun."

The top-rated recruit lived up to the billing as a seven-time individual national champion. And though still early in her career, Neff — alongside fellow freshmen Clara Raposo, Zoe Johnson and Poppy-Grace Stickler — will be called upon early to help the Red Rocks this season.

And though Neff had a standout moment immediately, each freshman and newcomer — including UCLA transfer Ana Padurariu — showcased the overall talent and depth of a team that Dockendorf said is tired of bringing home a third-place finish banner at nationals.

It's a team that is hungry to return to the top — and why not in the 50th season of a program that has been to every nationals competition and was the first crowned champion in NCAA history?

"I think that four years in a row of a third-place banner doesn't really sit right with our team, and I think there's a lot of motivation and determination to do something different this year," Dockendorf said. "I think that that's felt collectively throughout the entire team, but also the whole staff.

"We want to do something really special for 50 years for ourselves, but also for the whole community of Utah gymnastics for everybody that came before us and everyone that's going to come next. And I think there's just a really big driving force behind that. And every day when they come in, they're working to the best that they can do. Every single day, everyone comes in and brings 100%."

It's a group that Dockendorf said has brought a new level of consistency that she's never seen before. Though most seasons have their ups and downs, so far her team has "truly just done this nice and slow and steady, just building and building."

"Excited to see where this program goes," she said.

Dockendorf will have several tough decisions to make before opening up the season on Jan. 3 as she tinkers with starting rotations for each of the four events. And though there are proven starters for each, the overarching theme of the upcoming season is that Utah's roster is deep.

There will be enough talent — top to bottom — to mix and match various gymnasts throughout the year to maximize the team's potential this season. Most importantly, though, Utah's perceived weakness over the last few seasons — vault — could be much improved.

With potentially seven gymnasts with a 10.0 start value, the Red Rocks look like they've turned a corner on what's limited the team in previous years. And even better, the gymnasts looked more comfortable on the event to start the season than they did last year.

"I feel like the depth is a confidence booster, because it's very nice to know that someone else is there and has your back," Makenna Smith said. "And knowing you have the ability to rest if something's hurting or if you need to, so I feel like that's really nice; I really enjoy that. And it's awesome to see everybody else out there killing it."

What it all means remains to be seen, but it ended up as a "pretty magical night," according to Dockendorf, who included young gymnasts in the introductions and hired a live pianist to perform during the beam and the floor routine for Jaylene Gilstrap.

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