“This team is full of talent and full of heart.” Utah’s Jaylene Gilstrap Is Ready For Her Best Season Ever

By Christy Sandmaier

When Jaylene Gilstrap took to the floor at the Red Rocks Preview in December, there was a special kind of magic in the air. Known throughout her time at Utah for bringing a stunning style and a beautifully breathtaking performance quality to every competition, Gilstrap stood poised  once again to capture the attention of the fans inside the Huntsman Center, and write a little history. 

On this night, the Utes had already added a unique aura to the event in this, their 50th anniversary season. The Red Rocks celebrated with special live piano performances by Toby Scott, for their 13 beam performances. As a program known for its rich history, Utah once again gave us something to talk about. Capping off the event was a stunning floor routine performed by Gilstrap, who debuted her 2025 routine to “Piano Man” accompanied by the live piano performance done by Scott. 

“It was a dream that started in the summer, but a dream that came true. I didn’t know it was possible. I know 50 years ago they used to perform to a live piano. The first time we did it on practice day, I had chills! It was the coolest experience ever,” Gilstrap said.

The joy on her face told the story of everything she’s poured her heart and soul into the last four years as a Red Rock, and for Gilstrap, it was one more way to raise the bar in her final season.

Many of us remember her routines as much for the music as we do for the artistry she shows every time she salutes. A Queen medley – Bohemian Rhapsody, Beethoven’s Für Elise – within seconds of hearing the music we knew the gymnast and the school no matter the competition or how loud the building was. And with the performance quality continuously upped across the entire NCAA arena, Gilstrap’s routines bring elegance to the floor, setting her apart in so many circles. 

Head coach Carly Dockendorf, who enters her second season leading the Red Rocks program and her eighth overall with Utah Gymnastics, brought the idea of having live music for the preview to the table over the summer and Gilstrap immediately loved it. When it came time to choose this year’s floor music, Gilstrap was especially deliberate with her selection. She wanted her last routine to be special. Out of that conversation, a grand idea was born – a custom piece for Gilstrap and live music accompaniment during the preview. 

“Carly just had a great idea – before we even had music, before we had any ideas, she was like, ‘What if we do the Red Rocks Preview to a live piano.’ And I thought that was cool and being my last year, I really wanted my music to be special,” Gilstrap said. “Each year, it’s really hard to one up the year before. I told her I really just want my last routine to be special. And she said, ‘I know this guy. We can do a custom piece for you.’”

On the night of the preview and for days after, the performance was shared across social media already as one of the season’s favorites. “I didn’t think it would be that different because he made my piece but I could feel it,” she said. “Words can’t describe how grateful I was to do that and perform to a live piano.”

Ready to embrace her final season as a Red Rock, Gilstrap says her heart’s focus this year is on gratitude and embracing every moment of the process and the experiences with her team. She said there’s a confidence in the gym she hasn’t seen before during preseason, and that the depth is right there, especially with the freshmen who have already brought a great energy to the dynamic. As a team, they’re ready to show everyone what they’ve been working towards and that they plan to once again be in Fort Worth in April. 

“This year, everyone is a leader,” Gilstrap said, noting and that this season is all about “leaders teaching leaders” and encouraging everyone to step up for each other. “You work all preseason for going in the Huntsman, going to meets and performing in front of a crowd, and all of us just genuinely love it. I think this year, you feel the confidence. We have spectacular freshmen coming in – Avery Neff, Zoe Johnson, Poppy (Stickler), and Clara (Raposo). They’re just all incredible humans and gymnasts. 

“They blended right into the team, and you can feel their confidence. Normally, freshmen take a minute to get used to how it works – they have big goals for themselves, and you can see that in their training. With our depth, confidence in each other and ourselves, I think we’re going to do some pretty spectacular things this year. I’m going into this year extremely grateful I have another chance to do gymnastics and be with this team.”

Notably, Utah returns 16-of-24 routines from last year’s third-place finish at NCAA Championships, and is ranked fifth in the 2025 WCGA preseason poll.

Here’s much more with Gilstrap on her love of performing, leadership through challenges, the Utah legacy, and what she loves most about the sport, as the Red Rocks get ready to roll in the 2025 season and in their quest for the National Championship. 

I love the new floor routine! Tell me about the process of creating your routine…

Thank you! It was all a communication through Carly. I never directly communicated with Toby, who played the piano beautifully and created my music. But, he basically studied all my routines. He watched me back when I was competing in club, too. He was watching all my routines to learn how I move. 

We were talking about Céline Dion [for the music], and then he mentioned “Piano Man.” And I said I would love that! I love the classical music, something that everyone will recognize. And then we played with mixing it. It was a long process, multiple different clips he was sending of him playing the piano, and then he gave me the music. He’s just an expert, and when he came for the preview, immediately all the girls were like, ‘that sounds exactly like her music!’ It was cool to get creative and talk in person and make little adjustments, and add some flair. It was so fun to work with him, create it, and then perform it live!

Has dance, the performance aspect and the artistry, always come naturally to you? Did you have any formal dance training as part of your gymnastics?

I was a dancer before I started gymnastics. I grew up doing the recitals and all of that. I did ballet, jazz, and contemporary. I did it all for about six years. We had moved from California to Texas, and so my mom was like, ‘oh, I just am going to put her in a gymnastics class so she can meet some friends for school.’ They just put me on a team, and they were like, ‘oh, you’re going to compete.’ And I got five medals, and in a dance, you only ever got a ribbon. So I was like, ‘I like gymnastics a lot more. This is more fun!’ And then I just fell in love because I can incorporate my dance and everything to my gymnastics.

Last year, I know, it was a little bit more challenging heading into season. You had a leadership change and a lot going on in the media and across social media with that. As a senior, how did you help your team keep the positive energy and the vibe going through that challenge? It really didn’t look like the team missed a beat…

I think the best approach we took is gymnastics is something all of us have done for 15 years. It’s something we can do in our sleep. For me, especially, it’s where I go to escape. Gymnastics is the place where if school is hard, if my personal life is hard, gymnastics is something that’s constant and something that I genuinely love. So, I think we just all came together for not only our love for each other, but the love for the sport. 

We never stopped believing in ourselves. So we could see the media being like, ‘Oh, what are they going to do?’ But we had full belief that we knew what we were going to do, and the love and support for each other just guided us through the whole season.

What went into your decision to take your fifth year?

The fifth year was proposed my junior year – I had eligibility because of COVID. My freshman year, I had a lot of medical stuff going on and had an injury that ended the season, so it wasn’t ideal. Having the opportunity to come back, I was finally getting in the groove of things, finding myself as a gymnast and as a person. I just genuinely love this team, and I love the coaching staff. So when the idea was proposed, I immediately said yes. Just as it all evolved and then meeting the freshmen, recruiting them, I’m like, ‘I want to be there for that team.’ This is my dream. And the ability to do it for one more year, I don’t know who would turn that down.

What was it about Utah from the beginning that really spoke to your heart and said, ‘this is where I want to be?’

I went on, I think, six visits when I was in eighth grade. I was young! I was only 13 years-old. I was pretty shy. Going on visits and trying to figure it out – people are like, ‘What do you want to major in? I’m like, ‘I don’t know. I’m just starting high school!’ I barely would talk, and I rarely talked to the girls. I just observed because I was, again, a really shy girl. When I got to Utah, I was talking to all of the girls. I was out on the floor sitting with them, and I felt very, very comfortable. I come from a club that produces a lot of college gymnasts, and they always told me there would be a feeling, and I was like, a feeling… ‘I’m supposed to pick where I’m going to go off of a feeling?!’ But when I got there, I knew. I felt at home.

I love the program. I love the facility. I felt so welcomed, and everyone was so kind that it just felt meant to be. It was a hard move because I was moving so far from family, but it just genuinely just felt like home right from the start.

Who were some of your teammates, especially that freshman year, who really helped guide you as you were taking those first steps in your NCAA journey?

Jaedyn (Rucker), she was only a sophomore when I came, but she has always been such a leader, and she stepped right in. She made a group chat with all the freshmen just because she didn’t want us to feel so isolated, when we couldn’t really merge with the team yet because of COVID. We had to stay in our distance at first, and she just immediately made us feel so welcome and that we were loved on the team. I’m so blessed that I got to have her not just four years, but five years of my career. 

Same with Alexia (Burch) and the seniors that year, they just made me feel so loved. It’s really hard coming in and seeing a team of 16 ultra-talented girls – it’s intimidating. I’ve looked up to Utah my whole life, so I was fangirling. These girls are amazing. Alexia was really good at making you feel like you belong. And that’s all you need, especially as a freshman, is just feeling like this is where you belong.

In addition to all your gymnastics accolades, you’ve won leadership awards and are very active on campus. How important is it to you to have that balance between gymnastics, the classroom, being in the community, and just being a well-rounded person?

Carly, her big thing, especially last year, was gymnastics is what you do. It’s not who you are. She’s really emphasized, we’re so much more. We’re so much more of a person, and we get to bring out our personality in gymnastics, but that’s not who we are. Just having your head coach make that known just boosted my confidence to involve myself more in the community because I’ve always been one that loves to give, who loves to go and help. 

I’ve always done that. My father, we did all these service trips growing up. I knew just because I’m away from home doesn’t mean I can’t [still do that]. And I love children. I started working at the hospital as a volunteer and being able to merge that with gymnastics and school it just gives you a good perspective of life. 

It’s the first-world problems analogy that people use, but it just puts it in a perspective and makes you very grateful. It fills me with gratitude being able to go and give back. And, just even if I’m the smallest impact in someone else’s life, it gives you that boost of confidence, and it really just helps me differentiate myself as a gymnast in a person.

We’ve seen the sport grow exponentially in NCAA coverage and sold out arenas with record crowds the last four years especially, which has been wonderful. At Utah, you have been selling out that arena for so long. Talk about the tradition of being a Red Rock…

This year for our team retreat, we watched the Utah Gymnastics documentary, just talking about the legacy and how it was built. Most of us have never seen it. We know about the legacy. We’ve heard it, and we’ve got to even be a part of a very small piece of it. But just seeing, they used to train in this little itty-bitty gym that they’d have to set up themselves and take down themselves 50 years ago. Watching it slowly evolve, realizing the women that came before us is why we are here, why we have record attendance. They were marketing from such a small following and place – when marketing and gymnastics wasn’t really heard of. They started marketing, giving free tickets, inviting everyone to watch. Just hearing the story and seeing it, how it played out, and also now seeing how gymnastics is growing, it’s a really, really cool thing to see. Knowing that we are just a small piece of the Utah Gymnastics legacy is incredible and a dream come true.

Do you have a season theme this year, something that you’re zoned in on? 

We go through it for every team retreat. We have a U, and we fill our U with whatever we’re going to do this year. This year is all about leaders teaching leaders. We don’t have team captains. We don’t have anything like that. We’re all helping the young ones because once we leave, they’re going to be the ones leading. We can’t always have just one person leading at all, and so we really had the freshman talk. Avery (Neff) came up with this amazing analogy of a water drop. So every single day, we refer to it as the ocean, but we’re going to give an ounce of whether it’s one hundred percent of what we have that day or if that’s fifty percent. We’re always going to be contributing our drops into the ocean, into the bucket. Each day we’re going to watch it fill. 

And the ocean’s never ending because there’s going to be rises and falls, but every day you’re going to contribute, whether that’s gymnastics or as an emotional support or a friend or a teammate, you’re going to contribute as many drops as you can – giving one hundred percent of whatever you have.

Have you talked about season markers and where you want to be by April?

I mean, the end goal is a National Championship. My dream since I was in eighth grade is to help Utah win a National Championship. This team is full of talent and full of heart. We’re going to give our whole heart into everything we do. This team is special, the genuine care we have for each other. So we’re going to keep working on our hearts out and being there for one another. And I think this team is more than talented enough to reach our main goal.

I know for you, obviously, soaking in every single minute, is going to be so special to you as well.

It is! I joked with Jimmy (assistant coach Jimmy Pratt) when I was learning a new mount on beam this summer that I had never done before, and I told him I was really nervous. He asked me ‘what in life is ever going to replicate this feeling you have right now, going for a new skill, having those nerves?’ and, just him telling me that really switched my perspective. Wow, I should be grateful because I don’t know when I’m going to learn another skill like this. Embracing the challenge is being able to overcome it, knowing that type of strength that it takes. It’s a year full of gratitude for me.

And knowing that you’ve got one more season to go, so far, what have your favorite moments been so far? 

I mean, I would say every single year, just Nationals is always such a fun meet. It’s such a fun place to be with your team for a week. We always do such fun activities and really bond the most. That’s the most that our team really gets to hang out. 

Regionals last year. It was the most stressful, but also at the very end, the most rewarding meet I think we’ve ever been through because we do put a lot of pressure on ourselves, and we do know the long streak we have, and that no team wants to be the one to break it. It was an emotional roller coaster, but the celebration after and being with your friends and family and just having all those emotions – I was in tears because I was happy, I was stressed, I couldn’t cry in the meet, and it was just all these emotions spilling over you. The last two rotations were probably the best that I’ve ever seen of Utah gymnastics. It was just the most fun and the genuine love and determination was so memorable.

I just genuinely embrace every moment with this team and all the memories, like the team retreats and we do a little talent show with the girls, just all those little memories that I’m going to remember the most and really embrace.

The last question is something I like to ask everybody. You’re writing the letter to your younger self – and let’s just pick right before your freshman year – what would you say to yourself knowing now that you’re in your fifth year, one more season to go?

Probably a lot! I would say, ‘slow it down. Don’t be in a hurry.’ I wish I would have known my freshman year to just be more grateful – my whole motto this year is gratitude. Be grateful for what you have, even if it’s not going your way. Understand you’re one of, like, one percent that has made it here to college gymnastics. Embrace that, embrace your teammates, your family, and just genuinely love it because at the end of the day, you do your best when you’re having fun and loving what you do. I love this sport with my whole heart. 

Utah is set for the 2025 season opener, beginning its 50 years of Utah Gymnastics celebration on Friday, Jan. 3, hosting Utah State in Salt Lake City. 

Utah will make its first road trip of the season, traveling to the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Okla., to compete in the Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate Quad. The preseason fifth-ranked Red Rocks will take on #1 Oklahoma, #2 LSU, and #4 California at 2 p.m. MT on Saturday, Jan. 11.

For the 2025 NCAA Season Schedule, Click Here!

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For the 2025 WCGA Coaches Poll, Click Here!

For our feature on Lily Smith and the Georgia GymDogs, Click Here!

For our look at Mizzou, Click Here!

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Photos by Utah Athletics, and Lloyd Smith for Inside Gymnastics