(Photo: Susan Wong/WCSN)
Following the NCAA Gymnastics Regional Selection Show, the stage is set for Arizona State Gymnastics to try and make a run to Nationals, but first, the Sun Devils will have to fight through a region full of familiar faces and new powerhouses to get to Fort Worth.
After a rough floor rotation at the Pac-12 Championships, ASU’s score wasn’t quite in line with expectations. Nonetheless, it resulted in an improvement in the Sun Devils’ National Qualifying Score (NQS) and allowed ASU to hold onto a top-16 seed despite falling in the rankings.
“Pac-12 Championships is a challenging meet because you’re in the night session with the three other top-ranked teams in the country, who were all in the top 10 at the time,” ASU co-head coach Jess Santos said. “…Fifth place is not where we wanted to be. We definitely wanted to perform a little bit better.”
As the No. 16 seed, the Sun Devils have been placed in the Norman, Oklahoma Regional. Other teams placed in that regional are No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 8 Minnesota, No. 9 California, Arkansas, Boise State, Utah State, West Virginia and Arizona.
ASU has already faced off against four of the teams in the regional, turning out a 3-2 record. The Sun Devils handled matchups with Arizona and Boise State well but fell to Oklahoma for their only home loss of the season. The Sun Devils also dealt the California Golden Bears their first loss earlier in the season, but weren’t able to replicate that result at the Pac-12 Championships.
The Sun Devils will also see several new teams that they haven’t competed against this season. The most substantial of these teams is Minnesota. Despite coming in at fourth place at the Big Ten Championships, the Golden Gophers still rank within the top 10 nationally.
Minnesota is led by fifth years and 2022 regular season All-Americans Lexy Ramler and Ona Loper. Both gymnasts have excelled in the all-around this season, coming in at fifth and seventh respectively. Not only do they rank amongst the top 10 all-arounders, but the two are also amongst the best on individual events.
Ramler’s best event is the balance beam – she is tied for the fifth in the nation on that event. It doesn’t stop there for her as she’s also tied at No. 11 on the uneven bars. Loper, having scored multiple 10.0s on the event this year, sits at fourth nationally on vault.
Another standout and 2022 regular season All-American for Minnesota is sophomore Mya Hooten. Not only does Hooten specialize on vault and floor, but she excels on the two events. She comes in at No. 2 in national rankings on the floor exercise and is tied for No. 13 on vault.
Altogether, the big three for the Golden Gophers finished the regular season with six perfect scores and now bring three individual first-place finishes from the Big Ten Championships with them to regionals.
While they pose a challenge, the Golden Gophers will only run into the Sun Devils if both teams make it to the regional finals. The top two teams from each semifinal session will advance to the finals.
The first session of the semifinals consists of Minnesota, Cal, Boise State and Utah State.
The Aggies from Utah State have the longest odds of advancing, having only reached a score of 197.000 or higher once this season. The Boise State Broncos have a slightly better chance, but even then most of their best scores this season still sit in the 196.000s.
At 197.330 and 197.440 respectively, both Cal and Minnesota hold an NQS higher than both of those teams’ season highs. It would likely take historic performances from Utah State and Boise State for the Golden Gophers and Golden Bears not to place in the top two and advance to the regional finals.
ASU, however, has a little bit more of a challenge. In the second session of the semifinals, they’ll take on Oklahoma, Arkansas and the winner of Wednesday’s West Virginia and Arizona play-in meet.
As the No. 1 overall team, Oklahoma is all but guaranteed to move on to the next round. With the Sun Devils being the other seeded team in their session, they are also expected to make it to the regional finals, but the Arkansas Razorbacks could pose a threat to ASU’s nationals hopes in their first bit of postseason action.
With an NQS of 196.820, Arkansas’s score is not even a full tenth below ASU’s NQS of 196.905. Furthermore, the Razorbacks sit at No. 18 in the rankings, just two spots behind ASU.
The two teams are very similar in all aspects, which could make for an interesting back-and-forth race for second place in the second session. While ASU is No. 11 on vault, Arkansas is No. 14. The Sun Devils also lead on bars at the No. 18 spot, but the Razorbacks are not far behind at No. 20. Arkansas bests ASU on beam, however, with the teams ranking No. 16 and No. 19, respectively.
The deciding event for the Sun Devils will, once again, likely be floor. It’s the event ASU has consistently struggled on the most this season. While Arkansas just barely manages to rank within the top 25 on floor, ASU doesn’t even crack the top 35.
On Thursday, Santos mentioned an emphasis on floor and landings throughout the almost two-week period of rest and preparation. Through this, the Sun Devils hope to improve their worst event to make sure “that event, from top to bottom, aligns with the rest.”
Once again, with the Sun Devils’ NQS of 196.905 being higher than both West Virginia’s and Arizona’s highest scores this season, Arkansas is the biggest potential roadblock.
If ASU can find a way past Arkansas to finish second in the semifinals, it’ll find itself in the regional finals where it will have to once again finish in the top two to qualify for NCAA Nationals.
“If you look at the top four teams, Cal is one of them and we beat them earlier this year,” Santos said. “Minnesota is a fantastic team. They were at nationals last year too, but I definitely think that we’ve got it. We’ve got the difficulty, we’ve got the good execution, the scoring potential, so kind of just have to focus on us.”
As it stands, the largest advantage for the Sun Devils is rotation order. According to a predetermined rotation order decided by the NCAA Gymnastics Committee at regional semifinals across the country, the second-ranked team in each session will begin on vault, then rotate to bars, then beam and then floor.
Not only is vault ASU’s best event this season, but the aforementioned order mimics the rotation of a home meet. The Sun Devils’ record when competing at home and rotating in this order was 4-1 in the regular season.
“For the first night, we get to start on vault which is like a home rotation, which we just love,” Santos said. “Obviously, our team has done really well with that rotation order, so we’re just excited that we kind of got matched up that way.”
ASU’s road to nationals begins on Thursday, March 31 with the second session of the Norman, Oklahoma Regional semifinals taking place at 5 p.m. MST.
