ASU gymnastics won its first meet of the year, defeating No. 10 BYU 196.275-196.250 on Saturday in Desert Financial Arena.
ASU began the meet on the vault as freshman Anaya Smith turned in the meet’s best score in the event with a 9.850. Sophomore Hannah Scharf would score the team’s second-best score of 9.825.
BYU would make a statement early on when sophomore Anyssa Alvarado and senior Haley Pitou each scored a 9.900 or more on bars. BYU pulled slightly ahead of ASU by 0.475 points after the first rotation.
On bars, ASU senior Cairo Leonard-Baker scored a team-best 9.875. Baker only competed in bars and vault against BYU.
After a strong second rotation, ASU trailed behind BYU 98.300 to 98.000.
“Our beam rotation is where it came together for us,” Scharf said.
A mistake from BYU junior Rachel Bain during the third rotation, over-rotating on a double-front flip on her floor routine causing her to score an 8.800, helped ASU cut away at its deficit.
Despite sophomore Juliette Boyer falling off the beam during her routine, ASU put together four performances over 9.800.
Sophomore Gracie Reeves tied her career-high on beam, scoring a 9.850. Freshman Sarah Clark scored a 9.900 on her beam routine, and Scharf scored a career-best 9.925.
“Hannah has a real lot of confidence, and she’s hungry.” ASU head coach Jay Santos said.
ASU recorded its highest score on beam since 2019, scoring 49.225 and cutting BYU’s lead down to 0.250.
In the final rotation, Scharf stepped up once again and scored a career-high 9.900 on floor. Scharf credits her clutch performance to her practice routine.
“We used (the loss to) Oklahoma as motivation and put ourselves in those pressure sets at practice,” she said.
Scharf finished off a record night with a score of 39.500.
The meet-winning routine came courtesy of Clark. Clark’s score was originally shown as a 9.700, before a judge corrected it to a 9.800. Giving ASU its first win of the season.
At the end of the meet, a quick recount was needed as the final scores for both teams were decided within less than a tenth of a point of each other. In the end, ASU earned the victory.
“We were able to finish off the meet,” Santos said. “We’ve got some young talented kids.”
The ASU coach isn’t the only one who believes strongly in his team.
“The potential is there,” Scharf said. “We were able to finally put it together. The monkey is off our backs."
Reach the reporter at njpietrz@asu.edu and follow @NPietrzycki on Twitter.
Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter.
Continue supporting student journalism and donate to The State Press today.
