ASU Gymnastics: No. 19 Gym Devils Ready to Take On No. 24 Stanford Cardinal in a Top-25 Showdown

(Photo: Brady Klain/WCSN)

The No. 19 Gym Devils return home to Wells Fargo Arena Sunday afternoon for a top-25 Pac-12 showdown against the No. 24 Stanford Cardinal. This meet will also be a Salute to Service meet to honor the members of the U.S. military.

This week, the Gym Devils (4-4, 0-3 Pac-12), will be seeking its first conference win of the season against the Cardinal (5-3) after falling short to No. 14 California last week in a tri-meet with BYU. The Gym Devils placed second to the Golden Bears with a team total of 195.700 but were able to defeat the No. 21 Cougars.

As for the Cardinal, they are also coming off a close loss against the No. 15 Washington where they were defeated 195.825-195.475.

When looking at each event, both teams are closely matched on the vault, the Sun Devils hold the advantage on bars and beam, and Stanford holds an edge on the floor, ranking No. 13 nationally. Overall, ASU is ranked in the top-25 on all four events as No. 15 on bars, No. 17 on beam and No. 25 on both vault and floor.

During the past couple of weeks, the Gym Devils have struggled to put together a complete meet but are hoping that this week will be the meet where they can hit four-for-four on each event.

“I think we have everyone necessary to get the job done,” Morgan Wilson said. “We’ve been doing the work in the gym, so now we just need to be confident in our training and really attack each routine with intent and control what we do and not just let all the little mistakes happen.”

On the vault, Stanford takes the slightest lead with a season average of 48.860 compared to ASU’s 48.855. However, in recent meets, the Gym Devils have shown vast improvements on their landings with five gymnasts scoring 9.775 of better.

The Gym Devils have also found consistent success on the uneven bars with five gymnasts scoring 9.775 or better highlighted by Anne Kuhm’s 9.850 against Cal and BYU along with Leonard-Baker’s 9.875.

On the balance beam, ASU has had its share of ups and downs in recent meets on what is typically a strong event for the Sun Devils. They have not hit six-for-six since the competition at UCLA on Jan. 21. Last week, the Gym Devils were missing anchor, Heather Udowitch, who was resting due to an illness. However, Justine Callis highlighted the rotation in the anchor position to earn a 9.875.

As for the floor, Stanford has the advantage after tying their season-best last week with a 49.175 along with sophomore all-arounder matching her career-high 9.925. However, senior Corinne Belkoff also scored a season-high 9.850 during her previous outing.

“Getting that season-high on floor was really exciting for me,” Belkoff said. “It definitely helped boost my confidence on that event. Now I just want to build on that and keep getting better and better each week and keep contributing to my team as much as I can.”

Individually, it will be a battle in the all-around between Arizona State’s Cairo Leonard-Baker and Stanford’s Kyla Bryant. Bryant has received five consecutive all-around and 13 events titles this season and ranks No. 16 in all-around, averaging a 39.340.

As for Leonard-Baker, she is currently ranked No. 11 on bars, No. 28 on floor, and No. 27 in the all-around, averaging a 39.285. During her last outing, she did not score below a 9.825 in any event and tied for the individual event title on bars with a 9.875.

The meet is scheduled to begin at 4:00 p.m. MST on Sunday and will be televised live on the Pac-12 Network.