(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
The No. 20 Arizona State Gym Devils will begin their 2019 campaign Friday, Jan. 4, at home in a quad meet with No. 19 Minnesota, No. 23 Missouri, and the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC).
After being ranked in the top 25 nationally all season long, ASU is looking to start 2019 season off strong and to build off last year’s success to bring themselves to the next level.
Led by 2018 Pac-12 Coach of the Year, Jay Santos, and assistant head coach Jessica Santos, the Sun Devils have a lot of momentum heading into the 2019 season. Although ASU came up short of qualifying to Nationals as a team, they still qualified for the NCAA regionals for the first time since 2014 and sent 2018 Pac-12 Freshman/Newcomer of the Year Cairo Leonard-Baker to nationals as an individual all-around competitor.
While ASU graduated lone senior, Nichelle Christopherson, they are returning 14 gymnasts from last season, and adding three freshmen, Jasmine Gutierrez, Stephanie Tripodi, and Kaitlin Harvey, to its roster. With 12 of the 14 being upperclassmen, the Gym Devils will be relying on their 12 upperclassmen’s experience to lead the Sun Devils to their first national championship berth since 2006.
Leading the 2019 roster will be all-around duo, Leonard-Baker, and 2012 French Olympian, Anne Kuhm. The sophomore and senior, respectively, consistently competed in the all-around with Leonard-Baker posting 13 scores of 9.9 or better to win 12 individual titles in her freshman campaign and Kuhm posting four scores of 9.9 or better. Kuhm’s best performance came in the Territorial Cup meet when she scored a career-best 39.450, to earn a second place finish.
Leading the No. 23 Minnesota Golden Gophers will be sophomore Lexy Ralmer. Ramler, like Leonard-Baker, also qualified to the NCAA National Championships last season as an individual in the all-around and was named the 2018 Big Ten Freshman of the Year. As a team, Minnesota advanced to NCAA regionals in 2018, where they took fourth in the Minneapolis Regional Championship.
The No. 19 Missouri Tigers finished the 2018 season at the NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional where they took fifth. Leading Mizzou will be freshman Hannah McCrary and juniors Aspen Tucker, Allison Bower and Morgan Porter.
The University of Illinois-Chicago Flames will begin their last gymnastics season after the school decided to drop the program at the end of this season. Last year, the Flames finished third at the Midwest Independent Conference (MIC) Championships and had two individual conference champions. The Flames also sent senior Mikailla Northern as an individual all-around performer and junior Serena Baker on the uneven bars to the Tuscaloosa Regional Championship.
The top-25 quad-meet can be viewed via ASU Live Stream and will begin at 6:00 p.m. Friday, January 4, at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, Arizona.
