The ASU women’s gymnastics team entered last weekend knowing the competition was going to be anything but easy. The Gym Devils (4-2, 2-2 Pac-12) faced two tough Pac-12 opponents in a span of three days.
Most importantly, the Sun Devils finished the weekend with confidence, relief and no major injuries.
The Gym Devils took on UA Friday (3-3, 1-2 Pac-12) for the second time this year, scoring 195.500.
Senior Beaté Jones finished in second place in the all-around with a score of 39.300. She took second place in her vault, beam and floor events.
ASU hit 23 of 24 sets and was consistent the whole meet.
The Sun Devils’ floor event was the strongest of the night, with all six gymnasts scoring 9.775 or above.
Sunday afternoon, the Gym Devils returned to Wells Fargo Arena to host the No. 1 ranked team in the nation, the Utah Utes (4-1, 1-1 Pac-12).
Unusual slips, including two falls on the bars, prevented ASU from scoring higher than the recorded 194.000 score.
Sophomore Samantha Seaman hit her chin in a scary fall in the bars event, but gave a valiant effort on the floor and returned to score a 9.775.
“I definitely thought their legs looked a little tired, but you wouldn’t tell by vault,” coach John Spini said.
ASU’s highest event score was a 49.000 on the vault. Senior Callie Price tied a career high with a 9.850 and Jones took second overall against the Utes, tying a season-high 9.875.
“What I really think is once (Seaman) went down (and we) got two missed bar routines, I saw the energy drop,” Spini said. “Then they went over and saw three, four beam routines in a row … I was actually really happy with our floor.”
Although the Sun Devils didn’t score as high as they wanted Sunday, by no means was the weekend unsuccessful.
“I take away the character that my kids get from just being strong enough to get through that without dropping their head because the last two or three years, we’ve just been getting beat up,” Spini said.
Senior Madison Snowden scored 9.825 in her floor routine and freshman Natasha Sundby took second overall on floor with a 9.850.
“I think we did a good job, considering we just had a meet on Friday and coming back and competing tonight,” Sundby said.
Freshman Brianna Gades had a career night. After taking third on bars with a 9.800, Gades scored a career high on the balance beam with a 9.850.
The team’s five falls Sunday afternoon was uncharacteristic of the Sun Devils, but ASU came out of the physically and mentally grinding weekend with only a few bumps and bruises.
“I think we’re happy about having the last two meets this weekend over and done with,” Jones said. “I’m really excited we didn’t get hurt, and my biggest thing was that nobody got hurt.”
Reach the reporter at gdemano@asu.edu
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