ASU Gymnastics: Gym Devils drop Pac-12 opener to Washington

(Photo: Gabrielle Mercer/WCSN)

In a night filled with hops, wobbles and falls, Arizona State dropped its first Pac-12 meet to the Washington Huskies.

The got off to a promising start as senior Taylor Allex led the Sun Devils on the first apparatus of the night, scoring a 9.900 with a solid vault, which would turn out to be the highest scoring vault of the meet. Allex was joined by freshman Katelyn Lentz who scored 9.650 on the team’s first vault of the night, freshman Corinne Belkoff who earned a 9.475 after a large hop, and senior Allie Salas and freshman Morgan Wilson who rounded out the Sun Devils’ scoring with a 9.750 and a 9.700 respectively, helping to pull the Sun Devils ahead of the Huskies after the first rotation.

Washington started the meet on the uneven bars. Huskies’ all around senior Allison Northey led the team with a 9.750, coming out strong after winning the all around last week in the Huskies’ meet against Ohio State.  Northey was joined by junior Kaitlyn Duranczyk who also contributed a 9.750 and sophomore Zoey Schaefer who added a 9.725.  The Huskies ended the first rotation with a 48.325, trailing the Sun Devils by 0.175 after the first rotation.

ASU struggled on the uneven bars in the second rotation. Senior Allie Salas earned the highest score with a 9.675.  Freshmen Morgan Wilson and Heather Udodwitch and senior Kristine Levin all turned in safe performances before freshman Eileen Imbus fell and received a 8.750. Senior Carissa Kraus ended the rotation by falling twice, earning only 8.150 points and leaving the Sun Devils with a cumulative score on bars of 47.250 – a whole 1.425 points behind the Huskies, who started their comeback on the second rotation, earning a 98.650 on the vault.

ASU took to the beam for the third rotation. Freshman Katelyn Lentz led the Sun Devils scoring with a 9.800 followed by Udodwitch and Wilson who each contributed scores of 9.700. Salas and Allex both fell off during their routines resulting in scores of 9.025 each. Belkoff held on despite a wobble in the middle of her routine, and managed a score of 9.575 to give the team a cumulative score on the beam of 47.800.

The Huskies continued to pull ahead in the third rotation with their floor routines, receiving a team total of 48.900 on the strength of four routines all scoring 9.800 or above.

For the last rotation Arizona State had the floor and the Huskies took to the beam.

Allex redeemed herself by scoring her second 9.900 of the night with the best floor routine of the meet.  

“Honestly I’m still a little nervous when I go out there,” Allex said. “I’m very happy with the scores. I think I can do better with landings on floor for each pass.”

Allex had plenty of support in the final rotation of the night with Salas turning in a 9.825, Lentz continuing her solid meet with a 9.775, and a pair of 9.700s from Belkoff and Wilson along with a respectable 9.625 from Levin. Although ASU came back strong on floor, winning the fourth rotation by 0.125 after Washington managed only 48.775 on the beam, it was not enough to overcome a hefty deficit and Washington won the meet with a team total of 194.650, outscoring Arizona State by a total of 2.200 points.

“It’s a short week for us so hopefully that will be motivating,” ASU head coach Rene Lyst said.  “After a little bit of a disappointing performance for us tonight that we’ll go on the road and have a good showing at OU.”

ASU will travel to Oklahoma to take on the No. 2 Sooners on Friday.

You can contact Madeline Witt via e-mail 

 

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