(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)
The Sun Devil Women’s Gymnastics team scored their highest team total since 2006 in their meet against the No. 13 Washington Huskies.
“[The high score] has been coming for a while,” head coach Jay Santos said. “I’m thrilled they put everything together today the way that they did. One of the themes for today was momentum – let’s start, build and build and build. They did a great job of that.
ASU started off the meet with a 14-routine streak of scoring a 9.800 or better and continued the high scoring affair, hitting a season-high on every apparatus. The Gym Devils reached their best event total for their 2020 season, scoring a 49.275 to start off their meet– .150 higher than any event total this season.
Senior Jessica Ginn started the meet off with a season-high of 9.800 on vault. Completing its vault rotation, ASU had three career-highs and two season-highs, all above a 9.800. Adding to the total, Cairo Leonard-Baker’s 9.900 was the best individual vault of the season.
The Gym Dawgs and Gym Devils crushed their first events both with above a 49.000, however ASU had the slight lead. Geneva Thompson was a standout on bars scoring a 9.900 for the Huskies.
The Gym Devils had an incredible back-to-back rotations, scoring a 49.250 on bars for another event season-high. Adding to the high-setting meet, freshmen Hannah Scharf and Gracie Reeve hit a career-high of 9.800 and 9.850, respectively. Leonard-Baker had the performance of the day though, setting a season-high 9.950– the highest score on any routine so far this year for ASU.
The two teams remained neck-in-neck, but ASU rose above in the second rotation by .200 to keep atop the leaderboard.
On beam, ASU put up five scores of 9.800+, including 9.850s from Reeves and Scharf to round out the lineup. Freshman Isabel Redmond put up a career-high 9.800 on the event as well. Fans were also excited to see Leonard-Baker back on beam for the first time this season with an exhibition routine. ASU kept the 49+ streak alive with a 49.125 event total.
On floor for the Huskies, UW scored a 49.300 event total thanks in part to a 9.900 and 9.925 performance from Evanni Roberson and Kristyn Hoffa, respectively.
ASU put up its best floor score of the year of 49.225 with four score of 9.800 or better. Ginn has yet to score below a 9.825 on floor this season, this time scoring a 9.875, and Leonard-Baker set another season-high 9.900 routine to anchor the event.
Freshman Gracie Reeves put up her best all-around score (39.350) of the season with two event career-highs. Reeves, Scharf and Roberson all tied for first in the all-around competition. Leonard-Baker also won the vault and bars event titles.
“This is what they’ve been building up to,” Santos said in regards to the many freshman career-highs. “We knew that they were going to need to get some experience. They’re talented, they’re good gymnasts. Now with the season two thirds of the way done, they’ve got a lot of experience under their belts and I think it’s really starting to show in how they’re performing and how they’re preparing.”
Ultimately, ASU and Washington ended in a tie with final scores of 196.875.
“I really think [the tie] is going to build our confidence for the stretch next week of a couple of meets in a row,” Santos said. “Hopefully, with this energy we can just hit our stride and finish out the year strong.”
Up next, the Gym Devils head to Stanford to take on the Cardinal in another Pac-12 matchup.
