(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)
The No. 20 Arizona State Gym Devils (6-7, 1-4 Pac-12) were back at Wells Fargo Arena Friday night to take on the No. 12 Oregon State Beavers (7-2, 4-2 Pac-12) in a Beauty and the Beast style meet with the Arizona State wrestling team.
With wrestling taking place at the same time as the gymnastics meet, you may think it would be distracting, but to sophomore Cairo Leonard-Baker, she thought it was one of the most fun meets the team has had all year.
“It was really cool to have wrestling here the same time as gymnastics,” Leonard-Baker said. “We have a lot of friends on the wrestling team, so to hear their names get announced while you may be in between events was really fun.”
Head Coach Jay Santos also added that the unique experience provided an unbelievable energy to Wells Fargo Arena.
“Between 942 Crew and the crowd in general, I thought the energy was great and it was a fun environment to compete in tonight,” Santos said.
From start to finish, it was a back-and-forth meet between the two squads, but ultimately, Arizona State came up short by 0.25 to finish 196.650-196.625 behind the Beavers. The Gym Devils were able to eclipse the 49.000+ mark on each event for the first time this season scoring a season-high 49.150 on vault, 49.125 on bars, 49.150 on beam, and a 49. 200 on the floor.
“We finally put a meet together,” Santos said. “We were finally able to put it all together. They did a great job from start to finish tonight. They were very aggressive right from the start, and there was no let down like we’ve had a couple of weeks in the past. We’ve been talking about doing this for a month now, and we finally put it together, and thankfully we got a good result.”
In the first rotation, the Gym Devils picked up right where they left off counting five scores of 9.800+ to record a new season-high of 49.150, passing their previous season-high of 49.075. Leonard-Baker led the Gym Devil effort with a 9.875 followed by senior Morgan Wilson with a 9.850. Junior Jessica Ginn added a 9.825 along with a pair of 9.80s from seniors Anne Kuhm and Kaitlyn Szafranski to round out the rotation.
On the other side of the arena, Oregon State began its night on the uneven bars where Mary Jacobsen and Mariana Colussi-Pelaez’s 9.850 led the rotation followed by three 9.825s from Isis Lowry, Hallie Briscoe, and Sabrina Gill to finish with a 49.175 for the early lead.
ASU moved to the uneven bars in the second rotation, where they showcased many stuck landings to finish with a 49.125. Leonard-Baker’s 9.925, her third consecutive meet with that bars score, led the Gym Devils followed by Kuhm’s 9.875, tying her season-high. Leonard-Baker and Kuhm also finished first and second for the event title, respectively.
The Beavers struggled to get the ball rolling on the vault after suffering a fall from Savanna Force in the leadoff position. However, they were able to get back on track after the rest of the lineup recorded five scores of 9.750+, highlighted by Kaitlyn Yannish’s season-high 9.900.
Tied at the halfway point 98.275-98.275, the Gym Devils moved to the balance beam in the third rotation where senior Justine Callis’s 9.875 anchored the rotation for a 49.150 team cumulative. Leonard-Baker added a 9.850 followed by senior Heather Udowitch who made her return to the beam lineup for senior night recording a 9.800 after missing the last three meets.
As for the Beavers, they scored 49.225 on the floor after Isis Lowery and Yannish put up a pair of 9.925s to tie for the event title. Oregon State took the slight lead over the Gym Devils 147.500-147.425 heading into the final rotation.
Closing out the night, four seniors showed strong performances with Callis scoring a season-high 9.825 and Kuhm tying her season-high with a 9.875. Szafranski added a 9.825 setting up Leonard-Baker for a 9.900 in the anchor position. Senior Corinne Belkoff and Ginn contributed a pair of 9.775s for a 49.200 finish.
In the all-around, Leonard-Baker scored a season-high 39.550, taking the title over Kuhm’s 39.325. Oregon State did not have any gymnasts competing in the all-around.
This meet also paid tribute to the five seniors on the team, honoring them alongside their teammates and family members at the conclusion of the meet. Aside from Katelyn Lentz who did not compete due to an injury suffered at the UCLA meet earlier this year, each of the seniors gave strong performances for some of their last routines in Wells Fargo Arena.
“I was really emotional since it was senior night, and so obviously you want to do good,” Kuhm said. “But I just remembered to focus on what I had to do, but it was really nice at the end to have all my teammates and coaches around me for the senior night ceremony.”
Santos also reflected on this year’s group of seniors who he says, “has been through the wringer, but have been phenomenal to watch.”
“This group of seniors has been through the wringer with so many ups and downs, between coaching changes and everything in between,” Santos said. “It really hasn’t come easy for them but they’ve worked so hard right from the start for us, and they keep pushing through, so you can’t ask for anything more.”
The Gym Devils will be back on the road again for a series of quad- and tri-meets starting with a quad-meet at No. 25 Penn State with Yale and Cornell before heading to No. 6 Denver to compete in a quad-meet with No. 17 Nebraska and Pittsburg. The Gym Devils will then come home for their final meet of the season to face No. 18 BYU again along with No. 24 West Virginia.
The Penn State quad-meet is slated to begin at 2 p.m. MST and will be available to live stream via Penn State’s Lionvision.
