(Photo: Susan Wong/WCSN)
Arizona State Gymnastics points the bus south this week as its road trip leads them behind enemy lines in Tucson, Arizona to take on the University of Arizona Wildcats in a battle for the Territorial Cup.
The Set Devils get set to compete on Saturday on the road for the second week in a row against a Pac-12 Conference team. The Sun Devils come into the weekend still ranked amongst the Top 25 teams in the country, but only by a few spots as they rank No. 20.
Last week, the Sun Devils received their third loss of the season to No. 13 Oregon State in Corvallis 197.375 to 196.550.
Arizona does not crack the top 35 nationally, as it comes into the weekend ranked No. 36 per Road to Nationals.
The battle between the two schools in gymnastics dates back to 2000 and later, but going back to 2005, Arizona has held the record over the Sun Devils. ASU has six wins and ten losses against the Wildcats, but in the all-time series record, ASU leads 36-16-1.
The catch, though? The Sun Devils have won the last five meetings between the two clubs. ASU won last year’s meeting at home 196.100 to 195.075.
The Sun Devils lead the Wildcats in the Pac-12 standings as well this year, but only one spot separates the two.
On the other side of the coin, the Wildcats return to the McKale Center in Tucson after their own two-week road trip that saw them face UCLA – a team that ASU will face next week – and Washington, who is ASU’s sole victory so far this season. The Wildcats would not fare well in LA or Seattle, losing both of those meets, 196.400 to 195.125 at UCLA and 196.250 to 196.050 against Washington. However, Arizona received the highest score it has all year against the Huskies.
Arizona comes into Saturday nationally ranked No. 44 on the vault, No. 42 on bars, No. 29 on the beam, and No. 32 on the floor.
Freshman Emily Mueller caries the highest total score for Arizona through all four meets and all four apparatuses with a 146.625. The next closest to her is fellow freshman Alysen Fears, who posts a total score of 146.425 per Road to Nationals.
The next closest to Mueller and Fears is junior Malia Hargrove with a 116.600.
To put this into respective, ASU junior Hannah Scharf, sophomore Emily White and freshman Alex Theodorou all have total scores through four events of 157.725, 136.325, and 135.900, respectively. Those are the only three athletes to have made a minimum of one appearance on each apparatus for both teams. Fears, who is nationally ranked No.68 in the all-around, scores a 9.750 on vault and a 9.850 on the beam, floor and bars. Along with the season-high scores on the apparatuses, she also holds the Wildcats’ season-high all-around score of 39.250. Muller, who is nationally ranked No. 57 in the all-around, has season highs on vault, bars, and beam, scoring 9.800s and a 9.900 on the beam, while posting a 39.175 in the all-around.
The Wildcats are led by head coach John Court, who is in his fourth year with the team. Before becoming the head coach, Court spent nearly two decades working with the vault and floor exercises and being the recruiting coordinator for Arizona.
Joining Court are assistant coaches Taylor Spears and Peter Jansson.
Spears enters her fourth year coaching at Arizona. Before Arizona, she was an assistant at North Carolina in 2018. Spears attended the University of Oklahoma, where she won the 2014 NCAA individual beam championship and won an NCAA team title.
Jansson enters his second year as an assistant coach at Arizona. Before coming to Arizona, Jansson was the head coach at the University of Illinois Chicago for 30 years until the program was cut in 2019. Jansson would help the program pick up 12 conference championships and nine NCAA regional births during her time there.
