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When you skim Utah’s gymnastics roster, you’ll see the commonality for Ella Zirbes and Abbi Ryssman that both call Minnesota home. Then if you dive deeper, you’ll discover that both trained at the same club team, Flips.
That’s where the commonalities stop though, as each gymnast took her own path to becoming a Red Rock. For Utah, that’s a good thing, because while both are contributing greatly to Utah’s turnaround after a rocky start to the season, each is still enjoying their own journey.
Zirbes grew up in Stillwater, Minnesota, a quaint town known for its famous Stillwater Lift Bridge that connects Minnesota and Wisconsin and appears in thousands of tourists’ photos.
She was in choir from fifth grade through her senior year and says you will constantly find her singing.
“I love singing. It makes me happy and even when I try to stop, I just start up again,” Zirbes said, laughing. “I get asked a lot if I would sing the national anthem at a meet, and maybe I will, but not until I’m done with gymnastics.”
Zirbes was always committed to Utah. She tells the story of being around 9 years old at her club when a former Utah coach was visiting practice. She introduced herself to the coach and very boldly stated, “I am going to be a Utah gymnast one day.”
“It’s really just crazy that it turned out like what I said that day,” Zirbes shared.
The Red Rocks are lucky to have Zirbes, who has been a mainstay and key contributor on vault, bars and floor. Bars is where the junior shines, recording a 9.975 career high against BYU earlier this month, much to the dismay of the Red Rock faithful who believed the effort deserved a perfect score.
‘I like surprising people’
“She is one of the most underrated gymnasts in the NCAA,” said Utah coach Carly Dockendorf about Zirbes.
For anyone who isn’t sure how good Zirbes is on bars, she’s currently tied for fourth in the country with reigning NCAA champion and Olympic medalist Jordan Chiles.
“I don’t like being the superstar,” Zirbes said. “I like being more of the underdog, or underrated, because then I can just kind of work in silence and show people what I can do when it comes time to bring it to the light. I like surprising people.”
While Zirbes prefers the silence, her teammate Abbi Ryssman has had chatter all year surrounding her debut season. She’s already won three Big-12 Newcomer of the Week honors and has recorded a 9.95 on beam and gone above 9.9 on bars.
“Abbi competes like a veteran, especially after that beam fall (last meet in front of her), going up and putting up a 9.95, which I think could have gotten 10,” said Zirbes. “She’s always been amazing on beam and bars, and exudes so much confidence and calmness under pressure. If I could pick one person to look like on beam, it would be Abbi.”
Ryssman’s beam looks effortless, but it’s far from it as evidenced by her high scores that showcase her difficulty and execution. She is from Rochester, Minnesota, which is home to the renowned Mayo Clinic and the Ear of Corn Water Tower.
A different path
For Ryssman, her journey was a bit different from that of Zirbes. She joined Flips later in her club career and had committed to another program before changing to Utah.
“When I went to Flips, they helped me improve my gymnastics a lot,” Ryssman explained. “It was the detail work, and all of this opened the window for me because Utah really was a dream program.”
“My parents never pushed me to go as far as I have, but they were definitely very invested. I do think you can never really leave gymnastics behind, it’s always a part of you, so we share that.”
Utah gymnast Abbi Ryssman
The freshman has a family line for gymnastics, as her parents, Kelli and Dan, both competed for BYU. While it’s nice to have parents who “get gymnastics,” Ryssman said it never was the only focus, and she still found time to do fun things like crafting, baking and cleaning.
“My parents never pushed me to go as far as I have, but they were definitely very invested,” said Ryssman. “I do think you can never really leave gymnastics behind, it’s always a part of you, so we share that.”
While Ryssman is drawing a lot of attention with the honors and for hitting clutch routines, she’s also still learning. She credits Dockendorf and Utah sports psychologist Dr. Nick Galli for helping her.
“Nick has really helped me with my mental training, which is something we practice every day,” said Ryssman. “Carly has helped me recognize what works for me, you know, looking from an outsider perspective to identify what’s going on in your own mind and what strategies work.“
Dockendorf has praised Ryssman over the season, commending her ability to continue showing up and competing like a veteran.
Ryssman and Zirbes are back in action Sunday as No. 12 Utah travels to No. 21 Denver for the Red Rocks’ final Big 12 road meet, which begins at 2 p.m. MST.
