(Photo: Mia Gonzalez/WCSN)
TEMPE — After an up-and-down season full of highs and lows, the Arizona State gymnastics team finally made it to their senior day. In a day celebrating the seniors and the careers they’ve had, ASU looked to send them out on a high note. The gymnasts being honored were seniors Kimberly Smith, Kayla Lee, Isabella Kowan and Caroline Lichtman.
They were down .200 entering the final performance on the floor and it was up to Smith to boost her team to the win on senior day. All season she has been the consistent force for the Sun Devils and today was no different as she earned a 9.925 to end the day with her side in the win column.
This 2-0 finish over SEMO and Utah State was ASU’s first tri-meet sweep of the season and sent the seniors home happy in their final home match.
“It’s always great to win on senior night,” head coach Jay Santos said. “Probably the most complete meet we’ve had this year. So it’s nice to see it finally come together.”
The Sun Devils (11-8, 2-3 Big 12) hosted the Senior Day Tri-Meet where they invited Utah State (16-5) and Southeast Missouri State (14-11) to face off at Desert Financial Arena.
After the rosters were introduced for each team, the meet began with ASU on Vault, Utah State on bars and SEMO on beam for the first rotation. Energy was high to start the match as each team finished their respective events with a narrow margin between all scores. Utah State led 48.975 but ASU and SEMO weren’t far behind at 48.925 and 48.675.
Still early in the meet, teams moved to their second rotation that put SEMO on the floor, ASU on bars, and Utah State on beam. The Aggies and Sun Devils continued to build off strong starts and both scored an identical 49.150 while the Redhawks only scored 48.775.
The showings were highlighted with four scores from ASU over 9.800 while Utah State had five scores of this caliber and still tied despite this.
With these outcomes, Utah State and ASU began to separate themselves from SEMO in the third rotation. The Aggies moved to the floor, the Sun Devils went to the beam and the Redhawks to the Vault. ASU scored 49.100 which was highlighted by a 9.900 from junior Reese Grolla.
“We work so hard in the gym and go out there every weekend and you try to piece it together,” Grolla said. “I’ve done it so much and I’m just gonna do normal. James [Williams] wrote on my hand ‘just be RG’ and so I had that mentality going in.”
Utah State stayed strong though and scored 49.150, and as for the Redhawks, they couldn’t keep up with a score of 48.775.
As each team showed out on this senior day, the final rotation loomed as the Aggies and Sun Devils entered the final rotation with just .100 separating them with the Aggies leading 147.275. ASU finished on the floor, Utah State on the vault and SEMO on bars.
After a 49.025 showing from the Aggies, the door was open for the Sun Devils to come out with a victory. With strong showing from all the gymnasts, Smith capped off the day with an emphatic 9.925 that gave ASU the edge over Utah state to take the meet.
“Us and Utah State were kind of neck and neck the whole match so going into the floor I knew we were going to have to put up a fight,” Smith said. “I think we definitely did that. It definitely showed in our floor and it was such an amazing feeling ending that floor routine and hearing the arena cheer.”
Ending the day with 196.500 was a season high for the Sun Devils and was their first win over both opponents in a tri-meet this season. Better late than never, ASU found its stride and put on its best meet to close out the regular season. This victory also marks the milestone 100th career win for Santos.
“It’s great.” Santos said. “I mean just obviously it means I’ve had some longevity and had some success. There’s a lot of people involved that go into that. Those things are awesome and I think it’s great.”
The Sun Devils might be putting it together just in time for the Big 12 championships and possibly for the NCAA gymnastics Regionals.
“Jay [Santos] always says ‘it’s just gymnastics’ and I think that’s what we plan to do” Grolla said. “Just do our gymnastics that we know exactly how to do and what we do at the gym every single day.”
