(Photo: Aiden Longblake/WCSN)
TEMPE — Freshman Megan Aamold took to the beam for Denver as the final gymnast in her first and only appearance of the meet. Despite sitting out for the previous events, she was more than ready as she posted an impressive 9.925 to close out the dominant victory for her side.
Despite the outcome, head coach Jay Santos found a lot of positives from the meet.
“A nice bounce back from last week,” Santos said. “I think we just felt much more calm. Maybe it’s being at home, but from the get-go last week it just felt a little off, and this week felt more composed and put together.”
The gymnastics season is pushing towards the midway point as Arizona State (3-3, 1-1 Big 12) and Denver (6-0, 3-0 Big 12) squared off at Desert Financial Arena. Both squads came in ranked nationally, with ASU at No. 28 and Denver at No. 18. Denver also entered at an impressive 5-0, so the Sun Devils had their work cut out for them.
Looking for the upset, ASU needed to minimize mistakes and maximize opportunities, but unfortunately, Denver was too much to handle.
The meet began with the Sun Devils on the vault and the Pioneers on bars, and Denver came out with a hot start. Posting four scores of 9.800 or higher, this was the tone for the rest of the meet.
ASU was unable to match, putting up only two scores of this magnitude, which led to them trailing 49.150-48.900
Already trailing, the Sun Devils had a lot of work ahead of them if they wanted to pull off this upset. After swapping events, ASU gained a little momentum, outscoring Denver by .025 in this rotation, but the second half is when the tide really changed.
ASU moved to the beam and finished with a final of 49.000, which was highlighted by a 9.875 from senior Kimberly Smith, but wasn’t close to Denver’s performance on the floor. The Pioneers scored a 49.350, made up of five scores above 9.800, including a 9.925 from Madison Reidenbach.
Down 147.500-146.925 with one event to go, the Sun Devils were really up against the wall. Denver refused to let up and carried that momentum into the beam.
Putting up three scores over 9.900, Denver shut the door and put an emphatic stamp on this meet and finishing the event with a score of 49.450. ASU just couldn’t keep up on the floor and only posted a 48.950.
As the final events concluded and the last tallies were made, the final score read 196.950 to 195.875. In favor of Denver.
Denver came out, started fast and were able to maintain that energy and form throughout the duration of the meet.
“Their gymnastics looked clean,” Santos said. “Not that they didn’t have any breaks at all, but still just overall, their details looked more there than ours.”
This was Denver’s best performance of the season as they scored a season high 196.950 and scored 49.000 or more in each event to move them to 6-0. As for the Sun Devils, it was their second consecutive loss and brings them to 3-3.
Too many mistakes and not performing to the best of its ability led to a loss that ASU will look to grow and learn from.
“It’s go back in the gym, keep practicing, keep pushing them to do things stronger,” Santos said
A bright spot for ASU all season has been Smith, who has been seen as the leader of the team. She was the most consistent Sun Devil and didn’t have a score below 9.825 during the meet.
“I attribute it to the girls around me,” Smith said. “Just putting our heads down together and getting work in the gym is super fulfilling when we hit those lineups together.”
Moving past back-to-back tough losses against strong opponents will be a challenge but the Sun Devils will have their next opportunity when they travel to Morgantown to take on West Virginia.
“We’ve got to keep pushing on the execution, the details for sure if we’re going to continue to raise the top end of what we’re doing,” Santos said.
