ASU Gymnastics: Sun Devils take on young Oregon State squad

(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)

Last Friday, Arizona State Gymnastics overcame a midway deficit to earn its first win of the season over Washington at home. Despite getting the victory, ASU dropped five spots in the College Gymnastics Association Rankings, moving to No. 21 for Week 5.

The Sun Devils will now hit the road as they continue to work through their slate of Pac-12 Conference matchups.

The first competition of ASU’s road trip will take place on Saturday as the Sun Devils travel to Corvallis, Oregon to take on the Oregon State Beavers. With a record of 4-1 (1-1), No. 13 Oregon State will be looking to recover from its first loss of the season against No. 10 Cal.

Coming into the matchup with ASU, the Beavers have struggled with inconsistencies through the first four weeks of the season.

Oregon State senior Madi Dagen has especially seen this as the case this year, potentially due to the expectations that developed as a result of her success last season. In 2021, Dagen was a WCGA Regular-Season All-American and qualified as an individual for vault in the National Championships, finishing 15th overall. So far this season, however, Dagen is struggling to replicate those performances.

While she has been able to produce top scores like her 9.925 on vault against Cal, Dagen has also been susceptible to slip-ups resulting in low scores, like a 9.550 on bars in a Week 2 tri-meet against Washington and San Jose State. While she holds a career-high all-around score of 39.525 – earned last season – Dagen has yet to even reach a score of 39.000 in any of her meets so far this season.

The lack of cohesiveness for the Beavers doesn’t end there. While Oregon State comes in at No. 7 nationally on floor this season, they also sit several spots outside the Top 25 on the uneven bars. To round out the rest of their rankings, OSU comes in at No. 11 on vault and No. 14 on beam.

A source of Oregon State’s struggles could be the overwhelming lack of NCAA experience the team holds. With nine freshmen being added to the Beavers’ roster, the unfamiliarity with the collegiate gymnastics environment seems to be evident amongst Carley Beeman, Karlie Chavez, Phoebe Jakubczyk and Lauren Letzsch, four newcomers who have become constants in Oregon State’s lineups.

Collectively, the group of freshmen has had 11 routines score under 9.800 this season. Amongst these four gymnasts, only Letzsch has hit a 9.900 routine. Yet, she too has had her own problems with underwhelming scores, as shown by a 9.525 score on beam against Cal last week.

Despite the Beavers having many aspects of their performances to work on, they have had one consistent bright light throughout the season. Freshman and 2020 Olympic gold medalist Jade Carey is perhaps having one of the best debut seasons ever.

Through three competitions, Carey has yet to score below a 9.900 on any of the four events. In the Beavers’ Week 3 face-off against UC Davis and UCLA, Carey smashed the Oregon State all-around record, moving the mark from 39.750 to 39.800.

As a freshman, Carey holds spots near the top of the rankings for every apparatus and the all-around. Her No. 5 spot on vault, No. 1 rank on bars, No. 3 spot on beam, No. 7 rank on floor and No. 2 place in the all-around all come without Carey having reached the coveted perfect ‘10’ score for any of her routines.

Along with the numbers, Carey also has the hardware to show for her phenomenal debut performance. In Week 3, she was awarded both the Pac-12 Gymnast of the Week and Freshman/Newcomer of the Week Award. In Week 4, she once again took home the Pac-12 Freshman/Newcomer of the Week honor.

Even if the rest of the Beavers’ squad fails to deliver, ASU junior Hannah Scharf and company can almost certainly count on Carey to put up big numbers that will be hard to overcome at Gill Coliseum.

Speaking of Scharf and the Sun Devils, they have had their own issues with putting up solid performances week after week. On its way to a 1-2 (1-1 Pac-12) record, ASU has scored increasingly lower in each meet.

After starting the season with a debut high of 196.275, ASU had to put in large amounts of effort to beat Washington with a score of 195.275.

In speaking about the Sun Devils’ struggles, Co-Head Coach Jay Santos said, “We’ve gotta get rid of the mistakes, we’ve gotta clean up, we’ve gotta execute better.”

Specifically, in reference to the upcoming meet in Corvallis, Santos added: “Going into Oregon State, who is as strong a team as they are [up there in Oregon], we’re gonna need to be much more sharp than we were [against Washington],” he said. “We can’t keep throwing mistakes around.”

Scharf echoed a similar sentiment after the win over Washington, expressing that details would be the main focus for ASU when they step onto the mats at Gill Coliseum.

She insisted, however, that the Sun Devils were ready to be tested.

“Oregon [State] isn’t going to be easy and we know that, but I think we’re really looking forward to the challenge,” Scharf said.

ASU will take on the Beavers on Saturday, Feb. 6 at 6:30 p.m. MST at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis, Oregon.