(Photo: Susan Wong/WCSN)
On Friday night, Arizona State Gymnastics closed out its regular season by welcoming No. 21-ranked Boise State and No. 1 Oklahoma to Tempe.
In addition to hosting two top-25 teams, the Sun Devils also celebrated the seniors who have represented ASU the past several years.
“Today was really special to me,” ASU senior Megan Thompson said. “I think that it’s allowed me to just be so appreciative for everything I’ve been given and everyone that’s been such a big support system in my NCAA career. I’m just so grateful, and tonight was just so special and something that I will never forget.”
Right out of the gates it appeared the meet would be a challenge for ASU.
The Sun Devils opened the night on the vault but got off to a slow start as sophomore Emily White and junior Gracie Reeves charted just a 9.775 and a 9.800 respectively. The next three vaults were able to turn the event around, however, as junior Hannah Scharf scored a 9.850 and junior Jada Mangahas and freshman Alex Theodorou both scored a 9.875.
While the end of the rotation wasn’t as pretty to watch, with sophomore Anaya Smith scoring just a 9.700 in her season debut thanks to an injury suffered before the season, co-head coach Jay Santos had some optimistic thoughts after her performance.
“If she can get a little more practice in and get back to what she’s fully capable of doing, then it’d be a little bit of a boost to that vault lineup,” Santos said. “Vault’s been doing great, but it does give us that potential of another 10.0 start value vault, another potential big score that could gain that half-tenth or tenth in that event. Those differences can mean a lot in the postseason.”
If Smith, a 2021 First Team All-Pac-12 Conference selection on vault remains in the lineup, the Sun Devils’ best event throughout the year would then carry a third vault with a 10.0 start value in addition to Theodorou’s vault of choice throughout the season and a midseason improvement by Reeves.
While the Sun Devils experienced some ups and downs on vault, Oklahoma failed to replicate its previous balance beam rotations that have led the Sooners to No. 1 on the event and overall.
Sophomores Katherine Levasseur and Audrey Davis both managed to score in the 9.900s, but senior Carly Woodard, who is tied for seventh nationally on the beam, only scored a 9.800. Additionally, junior Ragan Smith, who sits alone atop the beam rankings having scored a perfect 10.0 twice on the event this season, didn’t even reach the 9.800 benchmark, scoring only a 9.775.
Through one rotation Boise State looked like the best team in Desert Financial Arena.
The Broncos began the night on their best event: the uneven bars. After taking a couple of routines to warm up, Boise State finished the event with three scores of 9.900 or higher. Senior Alexis Stokes and sophomore Emily Lopez both put up 9.900s to lead the way for fifth year Emily Muhlenhaupt, who is tied for fifth on the event nationally, to score a team-best 9.925.
After the first event, Boise State led with a score of 49.375. The Sooners trailed not far behind, totaling a 49.350, and ASU rounded out the leaderboard in third with a 49.175.
In the second rotation, however, Oklahoma and ASU quickly began to outpace Boise State.
On the floor, Oklahoma truly showed up as none of the Sooners’ routines scored below a 9.825. Freshman phenom Jordan Bowers highlighted the rotation with an event-winning 9.925. Her score was accompanied by a 9.875 and a 9.900 from Danielle Sievers and Danae Fletcher, two more members of Oklahoma’s stunning freshman class.
The Sun Devils seemed to pick up where they left off from the past three weeks when they took to the uneven bars.
Mangahas started things off quickly with a 9.875. Her teammates would follow up her performance nicely by delivering a rotation in which the bottom score was a 9.850. White and fellow sophomore Sarah Clark both contributed 9.900s to bring ASU’s event total to 49.425. Amidst the rotation, cheers erupted from the crowd as the Sun Devils stuck dismount after dismount to elicit the key score.
“Our landings have drastically improved over the last month, Santos said. “We stuck multiple bar dismounts today, beam dismounts, vault landings have improved, and as those details have come, the performance has gone up.”
On beam, the Broncos struggled with big wobbles and an abundance of balance checks. Stokes led off the rotation with a 9.700 that set the tone for almost everyone else. Despite a 9.900 by junior Adriana Popp, Boise State would have to count a 9.625 from senior Hope Masiado due to a 9.375 by Muhlenhaupt. With four of their counted scores falling below 9.800 the Broncos limped to an event total of 48.725, the lowest of the night.
At the halfway point, the leaderboard had shifted to reflect the rankings, with Oklahoma taking a 0.175 lead over ASU while Boise State fell in line, trailing the Sun Devils by 0.500.
In the third rotation, the barrage of sticks continued for the Sun Devils, as the home team saw both of its seniors take to the mats for their primary event: the balance beam.
Thompson, as she’s done so many times over the past three years, led off and scored a 9.850, ending her final home routine with an emphatic stick. Later on, fellow senior Jasmine Gutierrez would score a 9.825 to continue her season-long streak of 9.800-plus scores. While she didn’t get the stick, she was able to set the arena on fire one last time with her signature Rulfova, a full-twisting backward layout where she lands sitting on the beam.
“It’s really exciting because not a lot of people have something like that in their routine and it kind of just makes me feel really confident when I’m up there because I know that I’m going to go up there and hit that,” Gutierrez said.
Not only did she feel special performing that skill in front of her home fans one last time, but she also explained how special it felt to deliver her final home beam routine.
“The best moment in the world was standing on the beam in the middle of my routine feeling everybody in the arena,” said Gutierrez. “Getting up on that beam today, the way that I felt, it was so calm and I was so happy to be here.”
Despite a few mistakes throughout the lineup, Scharf was able to save the rotation for her seniors, closing out beam with a 9.900.
The Sooners continued to move through the meet, heading over to the vault table. Many fans waited in anticipation to see if Oklahoma would deliver on their intent to perform six 10.0 start value vaults. When the lineup was announced It seemed like fans would get their wish, but after Fletcher failed to land her vault in warmups, she was replaced by Davis whose start value was only a 9.95. Nonetheless, the Sooners still saw success as Bowers added another 9.900 for OU on vault – an event she’s ranked first in – and three other gymnasts posted 9.875s.
The Broncos tried to pull it together on floor, but several rough landings on tumbling passes and a fall from freshman Blake Pascal would block Boise State from being able to play catch-up to the other two teams.
Boise State finished the meet on vault. Lopez and freshman Alyssa Vulaj highlighted the rotation with a pair of 9.825s. The Broncos ended the meet with a less than stellar 195.775.
On its best event, and the second event for which it holds the No.1 spot, Oklahoma moved cleanly through a spectacular bars rotation to end the meet. The rotation saw 9.875s from Smith and Bowers, a 9.925 from senior Karrie Thomas and an almost perfect 9.975 from Audrey Davis, who holds a share of the No. 2 ranking on the event. The Sooners hit a 49.500, their best event score of the night, and finished with a total score of 197.625.
ASU, within striking distance, hoped to put together a near-perfect floor rotation to take the lead. But from the first gymnast, it was clear that the Sun Devils had simply run out of gas.
White, Clark and Mangahas all scored below 9.800, but once again, Scharf was there to rescue her team with a 9.900, putting the Sun Devils over the 49.000 hill for the event and boosting their total score to 196.800.
Although the night wasn’t about her, Scharf performed well, helping ASU keep up with the No.1 team and scoring a 39.525 to take the all-around title.
“I think we just missed the performances that we’ve had the last couple weeks by just a little bit,” Santos said. “Just a couple routines here or there would’ve put us up back up over that 197-mark and we would’ve been sitting exactly where we’ve been, so I’m pleased with tonight. We were hanging right with Oklahoma for most of this meet, and we just needed to finish it a little bit stronger.”
The second-place finish surely didn’t put a damper on the night’s festivities as the Sun Devils were all smiles watching their seniors receive recognition for their dedication to the team.
Thompson, being from Gilbert, had always dreamed of competing for ASU. She spent her freshman year at Nebraska, but soon decided she wanted to “come home.” She decided to transfer before her sophomore year and has been a rock for the Sun Devils on beam ever since.
Reflecting on her three years at ASU, Thompson said that “it meant everything to be able to compete for my home state. I’ve dreamt of that my entire life. It’s been an honor to compete for ASU, and it’s been a really great few years of my life that I’m never really going to forget, so I’m just really happy that I got the opportunity to do that.”
Not only was this ASU’s last home meet, but it was also the last gymnastics meet at Desert Financial Arena. Although they expressed some jealousy that their younger teammates would get to compete in the brand new multipurpose arena on campus next year, both seniors expressed how much more it meant to them to be the last class to come through Desert Financial Arena.
“I think to be the last team and the last senior class to compete in this arena, I think that’s something that’s incredibly special, and I think I’m going to take that, and I’m going to be really excited to watch them next year in that new arena, but this is something that to me almost means more,” Thompson said.
Gutierrez added: “I think that it’s a really good send-off for everyone who competes in this arena that’s moving to the new one. I’m a little bit jealous because the previews are so amazing, but I think that even proves on another level where we are as a team because I think we have contributed so much to getting that arena and being a top team.”
Both seniors highlighted their most special moments this season, which included beating UCLA and being a Pac-12 regular season co-champion. They are looking to use that momentum to carry the team into the postseason.
With a regular season record of 6-4 (5-2 Pac-12), ASU will begin its postseason run on March 19 when it travels to West Valley City, Utah to compete in the Pac-12 Championship meet. Currently sitting in the top half of the standings, ASU will likely compete in the night session with No. 4 Utah, No. 10 California and No. 12 Oregon State. The start time is TBA.
