The women's gymnastics team take a moment to themselves before their balance beam round on March 13, 2015, at the Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe. (J. Bauer-Leffler/The State Press)In the first session of the Pac-12 Championships in Salt Lake City, the ASU gymnastics team lost its footing against the No. 5-7 seeds in the conference and came in last place in the quad-meet, scoring 192.700 points, the team's second-lowest score of the year.
But that number is a bit misleading.
The Gym Devils were competitive with No. 5 seed Arizona, No. 6 California and No. 7 Washington up until the last rotation for ASU: the balance beam.
In what is arguably the sport's most difficult event to master, ASU had three of its six gymnasts fall and had to count two of them in their final score, posting a 47.100 on the event.
"Overall, I was really proud of the effort that the girls gave," ASU head coach Rene Lyst said. "We were all disappointed in how we finished the meet but at the same time everybody worked hard the entire competition, we were very consistent until the last event but I was very proud of their effort."
Lyst also said she was proud of "the calmness and consistency of the team up until the last event."
"I thought we were very in control, very confident and did a really good job," she said.
Arizona won the meet, scoring a 196.225 overall. The Wildcats were followed closely by California (196.150) and Washington (196.000).
"We didn't perform as well as we could have," senior Natasha Sundby said. "It wasn't our best meet but we put it all out there and we never gave up so we can't beat ourselves up too much."
Sundby was one of the gymnasts who fell on the beam, but she scored a team-high 9.825 on the vault, pacing the team on an event where they had three athletes perform with a 9.800 start value.
"Vault was definitely my best performance today," she said.
Sundby also scored a 9.675 on the floor event, which ASU, as the lowest seed, performed first.
The floor event, typically the third or fourth rotation at an event, takes a lot of energy and junior Taylor Allex admitted it was different performing it first.
"It kind of made me tired," Allex said. "It was weird, my legs felt more tired than normal but I did well so I can't complain."
Allex scored a team-high 9.825 on the floor and led the Gym Devils in the all-around with a 38.950 that placed her fifth in the meet.
But Allex wasn't completely satisfied with her performance.
"Honestly, I'm happy that I hit all four (events)," Allex said. "If I go to Regionals, hopefully I can do better to prove that I'm better (than today's performance)."
Lyst explained that participants in the NCAA Regionals on April 4 will be announced a little later.
The top-36 participating teams will be seeded into six different regions and then "the top five all-arounders in each region and then the top events person in each event makes Regionals."
Where do the Gym Devils play into all of this?
"We have the possibility of having four people make Regionals," Lyst said.
Either way, Saturday marked the season-finale for the ASU gymnasts who have been competing as a team this year since Jan. 9.
"I knew it was our last meet as a team so I went out and had fun and did my best and didn't worry about myself individually," Allex said. "I just worried about the team and what I could do for the team."
It was a tough year but Sundby said the gymnasts learned a lot from each other.
"I think we stuck together as a team," she said, "because we have had a lot of injuries but I think everybody has been very understanding of one another and we all have each other's backs and I think that's what's helped us get through the year."
Saturday's Session No. 2 will feature the top-4 seeds in the Pac-12 Championship: No. 1 Utah, No. 2. UCLA, No. 3 Oregon State and No. 4 Stanford. That starts at 6 p.m. on March 21 and afterwards, the final standings and placements will be announced.
You can click here to see how ASU's gymnasts performed in Session No. 1.
Reach the reporter at mtquesad@asu.edu or follow @mitchTquesada on Twitter.
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