ASU junior Allie Salas performs her balance beam routine against Stanford on Saturday Jan. 31, 2015, at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe. Salas finished her routine with a score of 9.725. (Krista Tillman/ The State Press)Sometimes when it rains, it pours.
The ASU gymnastics team has weathered a storm of injuries all season but on Friday night against No. 21 Southern Utah, a hurricane hit the Gym Devils.
The team was only able to compete four of six eligible gymnasts on three events and only competed five gymnasts on the floor event, giving up far too many points to compete with the Thunderbirds in a 195.925-162.325 defeat.
ASU had a total of only six women compete: sophomores Savannah Borman and Beka Conrad, and juniors Carissa Kraus, Kristine Levine, Stephanie Miceli and Allie Salas.
Junior Taylor Allex and senior Natasha Sundby, two of ASU's top performers, did not compete on Friday night.
ASU head coach Rene Lyst wasn't available for comment after the meet but she released this statement:
Sometimes circumstances are out of your hands and unfortunately that was the case tonight. I didn't think it was worth pushing athletes into lineup spots and risking injuries tonight. We had to make due with the situation we were dealt and I'm very proud of the way the girls competed down the stretch. They put up solid numbers on the floor and, especially, beam. Stephanie Miceli and Beka Conrad really remained calm under pressure and this experience will be a learning lesson. We are looking to move forward and to prepare to face Air Force as we send off Brie (Gades), Tasha (Sundby) and Morgan (Steigerwalt).The Gym Devils had four athletes compete in at least three events with Miceli and Salas performing all-around as they have all season.
Miceli won the all-around with a 38.600 and Salas finished right behind her with a 38.050. No SUU athletes competed all-around, but they scored in all 24 of their routines. ASU only scored in 17.
With so many regulars out of the lineup, the six gymnasts who did compete were forced into roles some of them might have been uncomfortable with.
But they persevered, especially Borman and Levin, who competed in three events for just the second and third times this season, respectively.
Borman wasn't ecstatic about her performance but she was proud of what she accomplished.
"Obviously, you can always do better," Borman said. "Especially on floor, I haven't really had that role since coming to college so I think I did pretty well for it being my first time competing since starting my college career."
Borman's floor performance scored a personal season-high 9.625, but she was happier with the fact that the team stuck together through one of the more mentally difficult nights of the season.
"We knew some girls were in positions they weren't used to, so we all decided to have fun today and that's what we did," Borman said. "We all wanted to be there for each other but it was just about having fun tonight."
Levin said knowing there were only a few athletes performing actually boosted her confidence.
"It made me want to do even better," Levin said. "It was a really big motivation for me."
Levin's 9.650 on the floor was the second-highest score by a Gym Devil, following only Salas' 9.750.
Salas was also the highest-scoring Gym Devil on the vault (9.700) while Conrad scored highest for ASU on the bars (9.750) and Miceli scored highest for the Gym Devils on the beam (9.825).
You can click here to see full results from the rest of the meet against Southern Utah.
Next on the schedule for the Gym Devils is the regular season finale against Air Force at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 13 in Tempe.
The Pac-12 Championships in Utah will be the following weekend with NCAA Regionals starting April 4.
Reach the reporter at mtquesad@asu.edu or follow @mitchTquesada on Twitter.
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