(Photo: Susan Wong/WCSN)
No. 33 Arizona State defeated No. 10 Cal Berkeley 196.300 to 196.250 points in Tempe giving ASU their first top ten win since 2014.
“This is what we have been seeing in practice for about 2-3 weeks and it just never made its way into the arena. It is great to see all that preparation work and finally come together,” said ASU Head Coach Jay Santos. “I am really proud of what they did today. I hope they are going to take this and run from it and we can build from here.”
Freshman Gracie Reeves debuted a yurchenko 1 ½ on vault and scored career highs on vault, bars and beam.
“Right when I was up there, I knew I got this,” said Reeves. “I just went and did what I do in practice and nailed it.”
Nine Sun Devils earned career highs by meet’s end.
The Gym Devils led early on vault posting a season high 49.125 points. Freshman Juliette Boyer scored a new career high 9.850 points and Reeves followed scoring 9.825 points. Freshman Hannah Scharf notched her own career high with 9.875.
Cal found themselves down early on bars because junior Nina Schank and sophomore Maya Bordas fell during their routines. Cal freshman Nevaeh DeSouza was the bright spot scoring a team high 9.900 points.
ASU posted 49.225 points on bars, their highest on any apparatus this season. Four ASU freshman posted 9.850 points on bars.
Cal ended the second rotation scoring 49.175 points on vault. Four Cal gymnasts scored above 9.8 points, and the team trailed by .35 points heading into the third rotation.
ASU has struggled on Beam in the past, but the team found success at this meet. Reeves earned her third career high score with 9.825 points while Megan Thompson tied her own career high giving the Sun Devils a crucial lead.
ASU junior Cairo Leonard-Baker competed on floor for the first time since healing from an ankle injury.
“She is the rock that we have had for the last couple of years,” said ASU Head Coach Jay Santos. “We’ve got a lot of other kids stepping up in other areas right now so putting her back in the mix will be that one more strong routine.”
Grad student Morgan Wilson 39.179 and Boyer posted 39.275 points in the All-Around, both career highs for each gymnast.
ASU will travel to Corvallis, Oregon on Feb. 8 for a tri-meet against LSU and Oregon State at 12:30 p.m. MST.
