(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
After being ranked in the top 25 nationally all season long, the Arizona State gymnastics team is coming off its best season in the past five years, and the Gym Devils are looking to build off of that success in the 2019 campaign.
“That’s the goal, to try to take what we did last year and then try to do it a little bit better and see if we can’t continue to grow and continue to improve as a program,” head coach Jay Santos said. “We had some success last year. We talk about all the things we want to do. Can we back it up? Can we actually get to a little higher functioning level again?”
At the helm of the gymnastics squad is head coach Jay Santos and his wife and associate head coach Jess Santos. Last year, Jay Santos earned Pac-12 Coach of the Year after leading the team to its highest finish in the Pac-12 Championship since 2012. In their third season at ASU, the Santos’ have a strong and talented group that is eager to prove themselves.
“Honestly, we came into this summer, and we were more of a cohesive group,” Leonard-Baker said.“We did more things together, and we worked a lot harder on getting to that next level. We’re really working more as doing it all together and everybody being on the same page and everyone working towards the same goals.”
ASU finished the 2018 season ranked No. 23 after competing in the NCAA regionals for the first time since 2014. The Gym Devils placed third in the University Park regionals, falling just short of Washington in order to qualify for the NCAA National Championships.
Although the team did not qualify for nationals, ASU sent freshman sensation Cairo Leonard-Baker as an all-around competitor.
The Gym Devils improved their overall score from 195.145 in 2017 to 196.545 in 2018. The drastic improvement is strongly thanks in part to newcomers freshman Leonard-Baker and junior, transfer Anne Kuhm.
Leonard-Baker burst on to the collegiate scene, posting 13 scores of 9.9 or better while winning 12 season titles and finishing as one of the top-three freshman all-around gymnasts in the country. She also racked up five Pac-12 Freshman/Newcomer of the Week Awards which was good enough to earn her Pac-12 Freshman/Newcomer of the Year.
Kuhm was a surprise standout in 2018 after transferring to ASU from Brumath, France. The French National Team member competed as an all-around for ASU in 12 of the 13 meets last year and scored 9.9 or better four times.
ASU benefits from having Leonard-Baker, Kuhm, as well as almost the entirety of the 2018 squad returning for the 2019 season. ASU lost only one senior from last season in Nichelle Christopherson but add three freshmen to the roster.
“We’re in a very fortunate situation where we didn’t lose a lot of competition routines,” Jess Santos said. “We’re returning everyone that we had last year. We had a couple injuries in the middle of the season, and all of those student-athletes are on their way back and should be healthy by January, so automatically we start with a great foundation.”
Twelve out of the 17 gymnasts on the ASU roster are upperclassmen and have plenty of experience under their belts, something that ASU has not had the benefit of the past few years.
“I think it’s really good just to have people on the team who have had competition experience because we go out there, we know what to expect, and us going out confident can really help the underclassmen come out confident,” redshirt junior Morgan Wilson said.
ASU welcomes three freshmen in Jasmine Gutierrez, Stephanie Tripodi and Kaitlin Harvey. All three gymnasts bring new, unique skills and difficulty to several of the lineups. Jess Santos says that the three are all capable of competing right away for the Gym Devils.
The Gym Devils 2019 schedule features six teams that advanced to the 2018 NCAA National Championships including the National Champion UCLA Bruins and runner-up Oklahoma Sooners.
With all of the success of the 2018 season, there is no doubt that all eyes will be on the Gym Devils in 2019 to prove that they are a national competitor once again.
“We obviously want to be able to be a team that when we walk into a meet, the other team’s nervous, so we want be a really competitive team,” Leonard-Baker said.
The Gym Devils open up the 2019 season with a quad-meet at home against Minnesota, Missouri and UIC. The meet is slated to start at 6 p.m. on Friday, January 4 at Wells Fargo Arena.
