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)The ASU gymnastics team is traveling to Salt Lake City to participate in the annual Pac-12 Championships, where it will compete against one of the toughest conferences in the nation.
The Pac-12 has seven teams in the top 25 of the current national rankings.
Those rankings are based on each team's regional qualifying score, which also seeded each team in this weekend's championship meet.
The Gym Devils, hurt by injuries all season, finished the year with the lowest RQS in the Pac-12 and earned a No. 8-seed with a 194.425 score.
Utah, the championship host school, has the highest RQS in the competition and holds the top seed with a 197.605 score. This is the third consecutive year the Utes have the top seed in the Pac-12 Championship.
The other seeds in the meet are as follows:
- Utah (197.605 RQS)
- UCLA (197.130)
- Oregon State (196.550)
- Stanford (196.530)
- Arizona (196.290)
- California (196.190)
- Washington (195.960)
- Arizona State (194.425)
Saturday's meet is divided into two sessions, with the last four seeds participating in Session No. 1 starting at 1 p.m.
The Gym Devils will start on the floor event.
Their final scores both individually and as a team will help their qualification into the NCAA Regionals on April 4.
"(The Pac-12 Championship score) factors into our RQS," ASU head coach Rene Lyst said. "We don't have automatic bids or anything like that in our sport. It's actually considered a regular season competition as far as qualification purposes go."
The Gym Devils are expecting to compete on all 24 rotations this weekend to give themselves the best chance to advance.
They have been forced to miss rotations this year because of a number of injuries, but that's opened up opportunities for individual accomplishments.
"We have a lot of individuals that are looking to make Regionals, and we're hoping they have a great competition so we can advance," Lyst said.
Lyst said the team is focusing on the same things they always do before a meet — staying consistent and cleaning up the small details.
"You want to go in there and hit all your routines," Lyst said. "We'd like to beat a team or two if we can and show that we have a lot of heart and a lot of fight."
Even though it's been a tough season, the team is ready to go for this weekend against some of the toughest competition in the country.
"I know everyone's excited about this weekend," Lyst said.
The No. 8 seed Gym Devils will compete at 1 p.m. on March 21 in Session No. 1 with No. 5 seed Arizona, No. 6 California and No. 7 Washington.
The top-4 seeds will compete at 6 p.m.
Reach the reporter at mtquesad@asu.edu or follow @mitchTquesada on Twitter.
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