ASU Gymnastics: After strong Michigan showing, Sun Devils take on Utah

(Photo: Susan Wong/WCSN)

Arizona State Gymnastics will hit the road again on Friday at the John H. Hudson Center in Salt Lake City against the Utah Utes. The Sun Devils will head into Utah coming off some momentum after last week’s strong start to the season, where they kept it close with No. 1 ranked Michigan. The Sun Devils, who are now ranked No. 13 in the country, will be facing another tall task this week in the defending Pac-12 Conference champions and No. 2 Utes. This will also be both teams’ first crack at Pac-12 competition this season.

Looking back to competitions between the two schools before, Utah has had ASU’s lunch money, boasting an 82-16-1 record against the Sun Devils and winning the two’s last 31 meetings dating back to 2003. Last year, the Utes took all four meetings and would best ASU for the Pac-12 Championship.

Utah has had a better start to the season than the Sun Devils, mainly since COVID-19 protocols haven’t canceled any of their meets. Utah comes into Friday with a 4-0 record and recently got a 2.100-point home win over No.4 Oklahoma.

On the other hand, the Sun Devils are coming in at 0-1after a loss at No. 1 Michigan, where they lost by just over a point and a half – 197.950 to 196.275. Even though it was a loss, ASU still finished with its best season-opening score in school history.

Friday will be the first time in program history that the Sun Devils will be facing the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams in the country in back-to-back contests. Co-head coaches Jay and Jess Santos were happy with how their team competed last week in the tough match.

“Wow,” the two told thesundevils.com. “We are thrilled with how the team performed tonight. The team has dealt with quite a bit of adversity in the past few weeks which limited training time for a lot of the student-athletes.”

The Sun Devils will have their hands full Friday as Utah had four Pac-12 award winners this week: junior Jaedyn Rucker (Pac-12 Specialist of the Week), freshman Amelie Morgan (Pac-12 Freshman of the Week), senior Cristal Isa (Pac-12 Gymnast of the Week) and junior Jillian Hoffman (Coaches Choice Award).

Along with that, Utah is ranked No. 1 on beam, No. 3 on vault, and No. 6 on bars coming into Friday. Utah also features several athletes who are ranked individually: freshman Grace McCallum is tied for No. 8 Vault, No. 9 beam, No. 14 floor, and No. 19 all around. Isa is tied for seventh on beam, while junior Maile O’Keefe is tied at No. 16 on bars and No. 23 on beam. At the same time, senior Cammy Hall and Rucker are ranked on the beam at No. 18 and No. 20, respectively.

In their last meet, the Utes recorded the highest home-opening score in team history with a score of 197.775. McCallum posted a 39.675 in the all-around last week, which ties her for the highest score in the nation. McCallum is also a member of the silver medal-winning USA Olympic gymnastics team.

The Utes are a tough team to beat at home, with a record of 482-27 all time.

For the Sun Devils this season, freshman Alex Theodorou has been the standout so far. The freshman led the team with a 9.900 on vault in the last meet, which was her collegiate debut. Theodorou would also compete in two more events, scoring 9.850 on bars and 9.875 on the floor. Sophomore Jada Mangahas would lead the Sun Devils on the bars scoring a 9.875, while sophomore Emily White would achieve the best beam score of 9.875.

Junior Hannah Scharf scored a 9.900 on the floor and was ASU’s solo all-around competitor scoring a 39.475. She also didn’t score below a 9.850 in any event she competed in.

After last week, the Sun Devils’ coaching staff was impressed with their two standouts in Theodorou and Scharf.

“Hannah was a rock and picked up right where she left off last season,” the Santoses told thesundevils.com. “I know everyone was excited about Alex’s debut and she was phenomenal tonight. Breaking the opening score record is a great starting point for us to build off of.”

ASU will look to continue more streaks this week as it looks for its 12th straight team score above 196.000, 19th time scoring above 49.000 on bars, and the 11th time reaching above 49.000 on vault.

The Sun Devils are trying to “continuing to work on our details and adding back in some of our top routines over the next few weeks.” ASU is hoping it can get its athletes to “step up and focus,” according to the Santoses. If they can do that, they could be a force to be reckoned with.

Tune in to Pac-12 Network on Friday at 7:00 p.m. MST to watch the Sun Devils take on the Utes in Salt Lake City.