(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)
Arizona State Gymnastics returns home to Desert Financial Arena on Friday for their official home opener against fellow Pac-12 Conference competitor Washington. The Sun Devils come into Friday’s meet ranked No. 16, a drop worth three spots after a loss to No. 2 Utah last week. However, it was a close one in Salt Lake City, where ASU lost by just a little over one point, 197.400 to 196.100. It was also the second week in a row that the Sun Devils scored over 196.000 points. On the other side, Washington comes into Tempe off a loss at home to No. 11 Cal, 195.450 to 196.675.
The Sun Devils had the upper hand in last year’s meeting between the two teams, dominating the Huskies the 197.050-193.575 in Seattle. ASU co-Head Coach Jess Santos warned on Wednesday this time might not be as easy for the Sun Devils.
“Last year we were able to beat Washington fairly easily, but this year, I think they are a much stronger team, so we’ve kind of warned our team not to take that for granted, that just because they are ranked a little bit lower than us, they are very, very competitive,” she said.
Diving deeper into Washington, it comes into DFA ranked No. 31 in the nation averaging 194.725 points per meet compared to the Sun Devils’ 196.188 per Road to Nationals.
The GymDawgs also rank No. 26 on vault, 27th on bars, 36th on beam, and 52th on floor according to Road to Nationals.
Sophomore Skylar Kilough-Wilhelm will be a competitor that ASU will likely have to watch out for this week. Kilough-Wilhelm, the solo all-around competitor last meet for Washington, tallied a score of 39.400 while also scoring two 9.900s on beam and bars, besting her previous season-high bar score and tying her season-high beam score. Kilough-Wilhelm would score her first 9.900 on beam in a meet on Jan. 15 against Oregon State, which would also see the Dawgs pick up their first season loss, 195.550-194.000.
The two events that didn’t see Kilough-Wilhelm score the highest for her team allowed senior Amara Cunningham to shine. She would post a season-high 9.925 on floor and tie a season-best 9.850 on vault. Both Kilough-Wilhelm and Cunningham hold the highest team scores of the year – Kilough-Wilhelm with her 9.900 on beam and bars, and Cunningham with 9.925 on floor and a 9.850 on vault.
Washington gymnastics also boasts a new coaching staff in 2022. It welcomed in Jen Llewellyn as head coach, who was formerly at Linwood University as head coach for nine years. At Linwood, Llewellyn led the gymnastics squad to six conference championships and three USGA National Championships. Alongside Llewellyn are two assistant coaches who joined the team in 2021 – Jeffrey Langenstein, a former assistant at San Jose State, and Cody Llewellyn, a former assistant coach at Lindenwood.
When asked about the prospect of coming back home for their first meet of the season, Santos said that the Sun Devils are ready for it, but that it’s business as usual.
“We’re looking forward to having the 942 [Crew] back in the stands,” she said. We have a little section for them that we put on the floor. That is something that our current sophomores didn’t get to experience last year either. It’s so much fun having them there in our corner. They are right by the floor exercise, which is where we finish, so that will be great, but other than that, for us it’s just back to business as usual.”
The Sun Devils will compete on Friday in their home opener at 7:00 p.m. MST.
