(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
After defeating George Washington (5-8) and falling to No. 1 Oklahoma (12-0) and No. 18 Washington (4-4, 2-3 Pac-12) in the Perfect 10 Challenge, the Devils are coming back to Tempe and back to Pac-12 play.
On Friday, the Gym Devils (6-6, 1-4 Pac-12) will take on another tough conference opponent in No. 12 Oregon State (6-2, 3-2 Pac-12) for the Beauty and the Beast style meet featuring ASU wrestling at Wells Fargo Arena.
In their last meet, the Beavers defeated No. 14 California 196.950-196.150 at home. This was Oregon State’s second consecutive Pac-12 victory after previously beating No. 25 Arizona.
The Beavers were led by a combination of senior Mariana Colussi-Pelaez, sophomore Kaitlyn Yanish, and redshirt-junior Lacy Dagen. Colussi-Pelaez tied California’s Emi Watterson for a meet high 9.875 on vault. Yanish scored a meet high 9.950 on floor, her fourth straight meet in which she has scored a 9.90 or better. Dagen led OSU to its season-best 49.350 on beam and set her own career-high with a 9.90.
In the Perfect 10 Challenge, the Gym Devils were impaired by a slow start. The Devils started out by scoring 48.750s on beam and floor, both of which event are usually strong for ASU. Senior Justine Callis was a bright spot for the Devils and finished third on beam with a 9.875.
The Devils were able to bounce back and ended up scoring a season-high 49.075 on vault. Senior Morgan Wilson and junior Jessica Ginn both set career-highs on vault scoring 9.900 and 9.850, respectively.
“To see it all come together as the whole lineup it was really cool cause that’s something we’ve really drilled in here,” senior Kaitlyn Szafranski said about the vault lineup.
ASU also finished with a 49.075 on bars. Sophomore Cairo Leonard-Baker led the Devils with a 9.925. It was the Devils’ fifth straight meet scoring above 49.000 on bars.
The Devils finished with a total of 195.650, and senior Anne Kuhm finished third in the all-around with a 39.275, only finishing behind Oklahoma gymnasts senior Brenna Dowell and sophomore Anastasia Webb.
The upcoming Beauty and the Beast meet demands a bigger crowd than usual as it is a gymnastics meet that will be competed simultaneously with an ASU wrestling match.
“I’m looking forward to the energy,” junior Ashley Szafranski said. “I think we’re going to have a really big crowd, and I think it’s going to be exciting.”
The meet will begin at 7 p.m. MST and will be streamed on the ASU live stream.
