The Sun Devils travel to Salt Lake City to compete against No. 5 Utah for their fifth meet of the season and the first against an in-conference opponent.
Going into this meet with a 3-1 record to start and the first win against the Utes since 2003 last season, there’s much anticipation for ASU to continue upon what they've built.
“Getting that win last year gives us confidence,” senior all-around Emily White said. “We like to think of it as it’s not us versus the other team; it's us versus ourselves. We focus on our own gymnastics and do not let the other team affect us.”
While competing against highly skilled teams such as Utah and the rest of the conference, the Sun Devils look more forward to the excitement of the environment than the threatening feeling of those they’re facing.
“It’s more exciting to compete against Pac 12 teams,” graduate student abd all-around Gracie Reeves said. “You can feel some pressure, but I think our team doesn’t get scared from that. We like to rise to the challenge and put ourselves out there.”
To close out their third away meet in a row with a big win, the Sun Devils must work more on putting all their events together and touching on small but impactful details.
The team feels that going into each event with a different mindset has been costly, holding them back from their full potential. This next meeting is seen as a chance to rectify that by falling back on their training to improve their overall performance without any pullback.
“We want to put all our events together as one,” Reeves said. “We have been competing like all the events are separate, so to be able to have that mindset to compete as one is what we want to work on. We’re honestly really strong on each event; we just need to focus on detail.”
One event in particular that has been showcasing this team's star talent as of late has been on Vault. In their last tri-meet, ASU scored 49.475 on the vault, with four gymnasts sticking their landing, marking that as the eighth-highest vault score in program history and the highest vault total at ASU since 2006 in home territory.
The Sun Devils will have to continue this hot streak in this event to gain a possible edge over Utah.
Unlike the events that are seen to be separate, the efforts of each gymnast are looked at differently. With a roster filled with vigorous upper and lower-classmen, there’s no belief that one gymnast gives more than the other.
“Everyone is contributing at this point, which is what we were hoping and planning on,” head coach Jay Santos said. “We don’t have one person doing all the work. We feel everyone is contributing in their own way. Focusing on trying to figure out exactly where they need to put themselves each week to have the best performance.”
Knowing the modifications needed and what makes them a well-rounded team to the audience, the Sun Devils hope to upset the Utes on Friday once again and head back home with their first Pac-12 win crossed off on their record.
Edited by Alfred Smith III, Walker Smith and Caera Learmonth.
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