Utah gymnasts — led by familiar and fresh faces alike — start the season ranked No. 3

Utah gymnastics fans might have attended the Red Rocks preview Friday at the Huntsman Center to see veterans like Grace McCallum and Maile O’Keefe.

Bets are they left talking about freshman Makenna Smith, who not only had the gymnastics but the attitude to perform like she’d spent years in front of a Huntsman Center crowd, not minutes.

Smith performed on all four events, opening with a nice vault and then posting a solid uneven bars routine. She threw in a bit of a moonwalk on the balance beam then finished the night strong on the floor.

Utah coach Tom Farden said before the meet he predicted she could contend for an all-around role, now we see why.

“She is spunky,” he said. “She has that ‘it’ quality. She doesn’t back down.”

Smith, from Albuquerque, came to the Utes as a three-time Junior Olympic National Championships qualifier. But despite all of her competitive experience has never been in front of a crowd like the Huntsman Center.

“I’m learning a lot from being able to compete with this team and the crowd support is amazing, that doesn’t happen in club,” she said. “I’m just trusting I know how to do everything.”

There were other highlights through the night as well with the Utes competing eight gymnasts on each event.

The uneven bars was one of the cleanest events for the Utes. Abby Brenner, a transfer from Michigan, showed why she is an All-American on the event with a solid routine and returners including McCallum, Jaedyn Rucker and O’Keefe all looked in season form.

The only real miscues of the night came when Lucy Stanhope fell from the beam and Kara Eaker fell on the floor.

Cristal Isa, back for her fifth year, sat out the meet with an injured ankle.

“It felt good to be back out in front of that crowd,” McCallum said. “It gives you that extra adrenalin rush.”

Earlier in the day the WCGA Preseason poll was released with the Utes landing third, marking the highest preseason poll for the Utes since they were ranked second in 2010.

Oklahoma is ranked No. 1 followed by Florida while Michigan is fourth and Auburn fifth to round out the Top 5.

The Utes acknowledged there are a lot of expectations of this veteran team, which returns 21-of-24 routines from the squad that placed third in the NCAA Championships a year ago. As for now, they seem ready to live up to them.

“I feel good about the progress we have made and it gave us a good barometer with several weeks to go,” Farden said. “We threw a lot of new combinations and skills and it was good for us to see where we are.”