(Photo: Susan Wong/WCSN)
What had hope to be a national qualifying season fell apart on Thursday night as No. 16-ranked Arizona State Gymnastics fell in Norman, Oklahoma, in the NCAA’s regional semifinals.
The Sun Devils came into the night as the second seed in their semifinal session against No. 1 Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Arizona – who made it through by way of a play-in-meet the day before. While not guaranteed a spot in the regional finals, the Sun Devils had beaten the Wildcats on the road 196.600-196.400 and finished the season ranked higher than the Razorbacks.
The night was set for ASU to do well – their rotation was the same as at home in Tempe: vault, bars, beam and then the floor. But early on in vault, freshman Alex Theodorou was scratched, putting junior Isabel Redmond in her place on the vault.
Vault had been ASU’s best-ranked event this year, as it was ranked No. 11, but it didn’t show it on Thursday. Junior Jordyn Jaslow led the night off, scoring a 9.675. Sophomore Emily White would follow behind, scoring a 9.750. Junior Gracie Reeves was third in the rotation and posted a dismal 9.400 in her only event of the night, rather than being a usual on beam and bars.
Sophomore Jada Mangahas posted the Sun Devils’ second-best score of 9.800. Junior Hannah Scharf would post a team-high on vault, scoring a 9.825, while Redmond would anchor the Sun Devils, scoring a 9.750. ASU would find itself fourth after the first rotation behind Oklahoma – which scored 49.525 on the floor – Arkansas – with a 49.450 on bars – and Arizona, which scored 49.125 on beam.
After the meet, ASU co-head coach Jay Santos was critical of the Sun Devils’ vault performance and commented on how difficult the scoring was.
“We started on an event that was being judged a little bit tighter,” Santos stated. “We didn’t land great today on multiple events and were just giving up too much. We didn’t have a lot of sticks – we had a couple of decent vaults at the back end there, but they were judging vault tight, so you just weren’t able to make [up] a lot of ground there.”
The Sun Devils looked to rebound on bars, but it came to no avail as they still scored below the other three teams with a total of 97.950 and an apparatus score of 49.150.
Mangahas led the rotation off with a 9.825, followed by a 9.800 from sophomore Cienna Samiley. Redmond would tie Mangahas, scoring another 9.825 for the Sun Devils. White and Scharf would both post 9.850s, with Clark rounding the event off with a score of 9.775. After two rotations, Oklahoma held firm to its lead with a total score of 99.075 (49.550 on vault). Arizona was in second place with a score of 98.625 (49.525 on floor), and Arkansas was in third with a score of 98.525 (49.075 on beam).
ASU’s third rotation would see slight improvement, as the Sun Devils would score another 49.150 but still finish behind the other three teams with a total score of 147.100. Senior Megan Thompson started the event off with a 9.775, and in her collegiate debut, sophomore Skye Harper would post a respectable 9.800. Gutierrez scored a 9.750, followed by a 9.850 by White.
Clark and Scharf would round out the rotation with 9.900 and 9.825, respectively. Through three of four events, the Sooners rode high with a total score of 148.700 (49.625 on bars), while the Razorbacks moved up to the second spot with a 147.900 (49.375 on the floor). The Wildcats dropped a place with a score of 147.550 (48.925 on vault).
The Sun Devils would find their sole bright spot on the night in their worst event: floor. This was the event that co-head coaches Jess and Jay Santos harped on in to reporters before Thursday, as they said floor would be prominent in practice and that practice paid off.
All counted scores for the Sun Devils were 9.900s on floor. Jaslow was the only one not to post a 9.900, but still scored a 9.850. Gutierrez got the 9.900 parade started, followed by Clark, White, Mangahas and Scharf to round out the night.
Oklahoma would win the meet with a final score of 198.175, and Arkansas would finish second with 196.975. Arizona would finish third with a score of 196.800, and the Sun Devils ended their season in last place with a 196.600. The Sooners and Razorbacks advanced to the regional finals.
Post-meet, Jay Santos felt there was more to be desired but that his team battled hard.
“I think we did a good job of continuing to battle throughout the meet,” he said. “We started out on one of the tougher events for the weekend, and we came out, we hit bars, we hit the next three events. We hit them well, just didn’t hit them great with our landing and our details. I’m proud of the team. They didn’t pack it up, they hung in there, they kept hitting routines, they kept doing what they needed to.”
With Scharf’s chances at an individual appearance in nationals gone as well, she also felt that she left something in the tank.
“I feel like I didn’t reach my full potential today,” Scharf said. “I think I did a really good job of trying to rally everybody and keep everybody in the right mindset, but I think I did let it slip on a couple of areas where I definitely could have made changes and helped out the team a little bit more.”
