ASU junior Allie Salas performs her floor exercise routine against Stanford on Saturday Jan. 31, 2015, at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe. Salas finished her routine with a score of 9.800. (Krista Tillman/ The State Press)ASU gymnastics junior Taylor Allex is happy to be a Gym Devil, but there was a point when she didn't think she would be one.
Allex spent her freshman year at Utah and then transferred to ASU, where she says she feels more comfortable as a gymnast.
"I wasn't as close to them (Utah) as a team," Allex said. "It's not a bad program. I have nothing against them; it just wasn't for me."
Allex will be making her first appearance at Utah's Jon M. Huntsman Center since her transfer when the Gym Devils take on the Utes on Friday, Feb. 6 at 6 p.m.
ASU has struggled this season, but injuries have been a plague since the year began.
ASU has competed one gymnast short in at least one rotation in each of its past two meets.
The Gym Devils have not won a meet since their season opener on Jan. 9, but they will be getting at least two gymnasts back this weekend, senior Natasha Sundby and junior Carissa Kraus.
Sundby missed last weekend's meet against No. 19 Stanford with an illness and Kraus had to leave the meet early after re-injuring her ankle during a routine on the bars.
But both are feeling better this week.
"They'll both be in the competition," ASU coach Rene Lyst said.
Lyst said her team's focus this week is staying consistent during their routines this weekend against Utah.
Against Stanford, ASU had two major errors, Kraus's fall on bars and sophomore Savannah Borman's on floor. Kraus scored a 6.450 while Borman scored a 8.275.
Borman was efficient the rest of the evening, though, scoring a 9.650 on beam and 9.550 on the vault.
The major errors are exactly what Lyst wants to avoid this weekend.
"We have to hit all four events," Lyst said. "We can't have an event that counts a major error. That's continuing to be our main focus."
As for Allex, who scored well on the vault (9.900), beam (9.850) and floor (9.800) last weekend, facing Utah isn't going to have a unique significance — she wants to look at it as just another meet.
"I don't have any hard feelings against them and I hope they don't have any against me either," Allex said. "So I'm just going to focus on what I need to do.
I'm comfortable, and ready to go."
So are the rest of the Gym Devils.
The meet starts on Friday, Feb. 6, at 6 p.m.
Reach the reporter at mtquesad@asu.edu or follow @mitchTquesada on Twitter.
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