ASU Gymnastics: Sun Devils headed to Utah for Pac-12 Championships

(Photo via Xavier LitmanWCSN)

After a historic regular season, the No. 14-ranked Arizona State Gym Devils are headed to West Valley City, Utah, Saturday afternoon for the 2023 Pac-12 Championships.

At 8-8 and 4-3 in Pac-12 Conference play, ASU finds itself as the No. 5 seed in the meet, one seed lower than last year. On Saturday, the Gym Devils will compete in the afternoon session alongside No. 19 Stanford, Washington and Arizona.

The four conference co-champions, No. 5 Utah, No. 7 California, No. 4 UCLA and No. 11 Oregon State, will face off in the night session. Despite the field being split in half, each squad is still eligible to win the conference title by earning the highest team score.

The Utah Utes are the two-time reigning champions, however, they fell short against ASU on Feb. 20 in Tempe for the first time in 20 years.

The Gym Devils also dealt the Oregon State Beavers their first Pac-12 loss of the season two weeks later, winning 197.725-197.550. In that meet, ASU scored its ninth-highest team score in program history for the win.

With these wins, ASU has shown it can compete with some of the conference’s fiercest opponents. However, despite knocking off Utah and Oregon State, the Sun Devils still suffered losses to California, UCLA and Stanford.

Pac-12 gymnasts and 2020 Tokyo Olympic medalists Jade Carey – a sophomore at Oregon State – and Jordan Chiles – a sophomore at UCLA – are the No. 1 and No. 2 all-around gymnasts in the country, respectively. Carey and Chiles are also the only two gymnasts to receive Pac-12 Gymnast of the Week honors this season.

UCLA freshman and fifth-ranked all-around gymnast Selena Harris will also have people’s attention at Pac-12 Championships after earning a record-tying six Pac-12 Freshman/Newcomer of the Week awards. UCLA and Utah are in the top nine for every event, including total scores.

Although these top programs continue to perform at high levels, ASU still has a solid roster that has proven to be capable of upsetting the best.

Junior Emily White and senior Hannah Scharf have been the primary catalysts for the Gym Devils. White earned a title in every event, including the all-around this season. She also has the team’s season-high score on beam –9.925 twice – and floor – tied with Scharf at 9.950.

Scharf continues to show why she’s No. 16 in the nation with 10 event titles, one shy of her career-high for a season. The two-time All-American scored a career-high in the all-around against OSU with 39.625, tying the 10th-highest score in program history.

White and Scharf both received a total of three Pac-12 Coaches Choice of the Week honors this season. Both gymnasts proved their Pac-12 Preseason Watchlist selections were worth it.

The Gym Devils are once again ranked nationally in the top 20 for three events, but this time, it’s the No. 22 ranking on beam that’s the outlier. Their NQS on beam, 49.190, is the second lowest in the Pac-12. ASU sits in fifth among the Pac-12 schools for the other three events.

ASU will start the afternoon session on vault, where they’ve continuously increased their team score. Junior Anaya Smith holds four event titles after going four straight meets scoring at least 9.900. Sophomore Alex Theodorou notched a career-high 9.925 against No. 1 Oklahoma last week to help ASU put up a team season-high of 49.400.

Arizona State will then face the uneven bars, their best event on which it is ranked No. 13. Scharf and junior Sarah Clark lead the way, having both put up 9.975 routines against Utah. Clark hasn’t scored under 9.825 all season long. However, Stanford is just above ASU in the event rankings at No. 11.

Even though beam isn’t the Gym Devils’ strong suit, the Washington Huskies are still ranked below them at No. 30. In fact, Washington doesn’t have a single ranking about No. 25.

As for their in-state rival, the Arizona Wildcats, they have the best beam ranking out of the afternoon squads at No. 14, but Stanford is right behind them at No. 15. All four teams will have their work cut out for them in this rotation considering Utah, Oregon State and UCLA are in the top five nationally on beam.

The Gym Devils will finish off the meet on floor, another event that has seen promising growth. Before the meet against the Sooners, ASU was on a four-meet streak of improving their floor score each time to put them at No. 15.

The competition begins Saturday at noon at the Maverik Center where head coach Jay Santos hopes to lead his program to an NCAA Regionals qualifying berth for the fifth consecutive time in his tenure.