2 weeks Ago
Avery Neff’s ankles were black and blue. The young Ute gymnast had to be carried off the mat and into the tunnels of the Jon M. Huntsman Center, as tears streamed down her face.
With a fall on the final tumbling pass of her routine one night in January, the freshman season she’d dreamed of had crashed around her. That night, Neff sobbed in her parents’ room. Unable to walk, Neff had her older brother carry her around their house.
“I kept thinking, ‘When’s the pain going to ease?’” Neff told The Salt Lake Tribune, “‘When can I just feel a little bit of comfort?’” The first bit of relief came the next day when she learned that her ankles weren’t broken. They were just severely sprained. “You could tell it was scary for her,” Sophie Schriever, Neff’s former Olympus Gymnastics teammate, said.
“But, even then, she was like, ‘I’m going to make it back. I know right now it’s so bad, but I know that I can get back.’” (Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Avery Neff stopped short on her floor routines due to an injury, during Big12 Gymnastics meet against Iowa State, at the Jon M.
Huntsman Center, on Friday, Jan 17, 2025. . As Utah prepares for its 49th consecutive trip to the NCAA championship semifinals on Thursday in Fort Worth, Texas, Neff has returned to the all-around lineup and has established herself as one of the best freshmen in the nation.
Neff’s quick return to the all-around this season was a product of her competitive edge, determination and love for the Red Rocks. Looking back, Neff calls the experience “a blessing in disguise.” Now she’ll hope to carry over her experience to help Utah win an 11th national championship, its first in nearly three decades.
And, while many might be surprised about her swift return from her severe ankle sprains, she’s not. Neff knows exactly how she got here. “I think that the more you hold yourself back, the longer it’s going to take,” she said.
“I’m very much a go-getter. I’m not going to sit and dwell on it, I might as well heal myself and do things that I want to do.” ‘They’re identical twins’ (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah's Avery Neff on beam at Utah Gymnastics' Red Rocks Preview, NCAA gymnastics in Salt Lake City on Friday, Dec.
13, 2024. One afternoon years ago, sitting in Olympus Gymnastics coach Ryan Kirkham’s office, Brandon and Tonya Neff were concerned why their daughter, Avery, couldn’t break into the vault lineup. Neff was just beginning her ascension to level 10 gymnastics, where she would go on to become the No.
1 recruit of the 2024 recruiting class and win the 2023 national championship on balance beam, floor and the all-around. “I had to scratch her from the vault because she was going to die,” Kirkham said. “It just wasn’t there.
Her run wasn’t very strong, she wasn’t very punchy. She would buckle and undercut so badly that she would hit her head. “It was scary.
” While Tonya and Kirkham did most of the talking in the meeting, it was Brandon who ended the conversation. “Awesome, I love it,” Kirkham remembers Neff’s father saying. “You can be as hard on my daughter as you need to be.
She can do better. She needs to earn it in the lineup.” Brandon says he’s always been hard on his daughter.
In fact, the two are very similar. Growing up, when Neff liked to “huck and chuck” her routines without any purpose, her father would ask her, “Do you really want to win?” She responded by sharpening her routines over the years. “I believe in 100% that someone is always working harder than you,” Brandon said of his mindset.
“You have to make sure that there’s no one out there doing that. You have to think about that all the time.” The father-daughter competitiveness extends to family activities, as well.
Neff will give her all at card games so she can beat her father and brothers. When her two brothers, Boston and Carson, went on their two-year missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she made improving at wakesurfing her goal, so she’d be better than both when they returned home. One time, when Brandon was picking up Neff and a group of teammates from gymnastics practice, he asked the group of girls, “Who’s going to win this weekend”? Neff replied, “I am,” while the rest of the car was silent.
Brandon then jokingly pulled the car over and said, “OK, get out, I don’t take losers in my car.” Shocked, Neff’s friends stared in dismay before only realizing that Brandon was joking. “They’re identical twins,” Tonya said of Neff’s relationship with her father.
“They’re both very driven. “A lot of times, Brandon’s like, ‘No, you’re not going to do that. And she’ll be like, ‘Yeah, I’ll show you.
’” When it came time for Neff to recover from her ankle sprains, Brandon pushed hard for the freshman star to return to Utah’s lineup, instead of redshirting in 2025. He didn’t want his daughter to use the pain as a crutch. “I knew she was in pain,” Brandon said.
“But I wanted her to use that to her benefit, to make herself better and stronger through this.” Neff said the pain almost stopped her from attempting to come back. But through talks with her father, dedication in rehab and a dream of winning a national championship with the Red Rocks, she was able to return.
Three days after her injury, the South Jordan native was lumbering around her house while her dad helped her walk. Every morning after that, Neff tasked herself to do a little more. She’d wake up early in the morning for aquatic physical therapy.
Then she’d do more treadmill rehab during the day. By No. 4 Utah’s meet against BYU on Jan.
24, Neff was hobbling around with a walker. On Feb. 7, Neff was back in the uneven bars lineup, with her still-injured ankles wrapped in tape.
“Dealing with injuries for the last 30 years of coaching,” Kirkham said, “I know that it typically takes a lot longer than three weeks to overcome something as bad as that.” Neff has since come back as an all-arounder, winning the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year award. She’s now using that experience to move herself and the Red Rocks forward because it’s a dream she’s had since she was a little girl.
“You don’t get anywhere in life unless you work for it,” Neff said. “Nothing’s handed to you on a golden platter. I didn’t want to just throw my freshman season away.
“I’ve been dreaming about this for years.” ‘It was always just Utah’ (Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah’s Avery Neff competes on the floor during the Big 12 Gymnastics Championship at Maverick Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday, March 22, 2025. Sophie Schriever still has a picture of her and Neff as children, watching a Red Rocks meet from the crimson stands of the Huntsman Center.
The pair of Olympus teammates grew up admiring Utah women’s gymnastics. Jessica Duke McDonough, a former Red Rock great from 2004-2008, is a coach at their hometown gym and Neff looked up to her growing up. “I actually took her to her first Utah gymnastics meet,” Schriever said.
“I think, ever since then, she absolutely loved it there, and like, it’s just home for her.” Schriever is now committed to Iowa, while Neff lives out her dreams with the Red Rocks. She’s always wanted to be at the NCAA championships, with hopes of guiding Utah to its first NCAA title in a little over 30 years.
From the stands of Utah’s 15,000-seat arena, she imagined herself becoming a Red Rock like the legendary gymnasts before her, donning the glittery red, white and black leotards. “Every single thing that I did, I was kind of superstitious about it,” Neff said of her dream of being a Utah gymnast “I was like, ‘If I do this, I can make it to Utah. If I do this, the coaches will want me at Utah.
’ It was never really like any other kind of college. “It was always just Utah.” It’s finally happening now.
But Neff’s decision to join Utah wasn’t always easy. As she rose to become the No. 1 recruit in the nation, the offers from top programs started pouring in.
Oklahoma’s K.J. Kindler, who has led the Sooners to six national championships since 2016, contacted McDonough following Neff’s first level-10 national championship in 2021.
Immediately after Neff finished a landing on her final rotation, Kindler texted the former Red Rock, “Can we please come into your gym and see Avery.” During her two-year recruitment, Neff also built strong relationships with SEC powerhouses Florida and LSU. “At OU, she still stays in touch with Olivia Trautman, who was one of the highest-level gymnasts in the country,” McDonough said.
“I know that stuff hurt her because she didn’t want to hurt them. “She could choose whatever she wanted, but it really was hard for her to choose because of the relationships she built.” Neff’s decision became clear as time passed on though.
She continued to look back and think about how she’d see Utah gymnastics’ billboards along Interstate 15, imagining herself pictured there one day. When she visited with the Gators in Gainesville, her mom, Tonya, asked one of the parents of Florida’s committed gymnasts how they arrived at their decision. The comment provided even more clarity on Neff’s decision.
“The mom said she always wanted to be a Gator at the end of the day,” Neff said. “I kind of just thought back to myself, ‘Well, I always wanted to be a Red Rock.’” On Nov.
8, 2023, Neff officially signed with the Red Rocks, making her decision official. Two years later, Neff is living out her dream. After suffering her injury on Jan.
17, the freshman outlined a goal to be back for Utah’s alumni night, circling the date Feb. 7 clearly on her calendar. As she planned her return to uneven bars, Utah head coach Carly Dockendorf phoned McDonough to see if she thought Neff would be OK by then.
There was no doubt in her mind. On Feb. 7, McDonough was cheering as Neff stuck the landing of her bars routine.
“She really had that dream and made it a reality,” she said. ‘She wants to be No. 1’ (Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Avery Neff reacts after competing on the floor in the NCAA regional semi-finals at the Jon M.
Huntsman Center on Thursday, April 3, 2025. As Neff and the Red Rocks prepare to compete for an 11th national championship, the freshman’s talent is undeniable. And there’s no question she’ll have to be at the top of her game for Utah to hoist a national championship trophy on Saturday.
Neff’s injury has provided a lesson she’ll carry with her in Fort Worth. “I feel like her injury has been a blessing in disguise,” Tonya said. “It’s not about Avery anymore.
It’s for the team, and she has to do as much as she can to help build them up.” The star freshman also learned a bit about her own grit and determination. “She had to get back at it, and you could see that drive and that spark during her rehab,” Brandon said.
“It just pisses her off that there are others out there working at things that she can’t work because she was injured.” With three years of eligibility remaining, Neff also realizes what her own goals are down the line. She wants to be an All-American.
She wants to score a perfect 10 as many times as possible, with hopes of breaking the all-time record of 28. Neff, maybe most of all, wants to win a national championship with her hometown team. She has a chance to mark that off her list this week.
“There are some that maybe people may think are a bit out of reach,” Neff said. “If I don’t set my goals high, then what are goals for?” The freshman certainly has time on her side, with three years to not only complete her dreams and feats but also to develop into the superstar she wants to be. She plans on getting there using the same dogged, unrelenting mentality.
It’s how she returned from her injury. It’s why Neff committed to the Red Rocks. Now? It’s the ultimate force driving her forward.
“If you were to ask her today, I don’t think she would tell you that she was the No. 1 recruit,” Brandon said. “She wants to be No.
1, and she needs to prove that she’s No. 1.” Note to readers • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only.
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