Sun Devils escape Central Michigan in season opener

TEMPE — Monday proved to be a day of new beginnings in Tempe; the spring semester started back up for all Arizona State students, with every student trying to navigate a new and different schedule. Meanwhile, ASU gymnastics focused on only one part of its new schedule: the home opener against Central Michigan.

The Gym Devils started off their new year with aerial fireworks on vault, where the team put up five scores over 9.800, canceling out graduate Gracie Reeves’ event-low score of 9.225 due to a fall on her landing. ASU narrowly edged out the Chippewas, who had a bars performance capped off by junior Lia Kmieciak’s impressive 9.900, and took the 49.125 to 48.975 lead.

Reeves quickly showed her toughness and bounced back to put up a 9.825 to start off the Gym Devils on bars. ASU continued its routines with a solid effort, not dropping below 9.700 – except for senior Sarah Clark, who received a 9.650, much to the dismay and confusion of the ASU fans. It was then CMU’s turn to take to the skies led by Kmieciak again and sophomore all-arounder and Costa Rican Olympian Luciana Alvarado-Reid, who both put up 9.825 and kept the meet close at a score of 98.200 to 97.650 at the end of the first half of competition.

Central Michigan started the third rotation strong, with senior Chippewas Hallie Hornbacher recording a 9.850 and setting a precedent of good floor scores, with only one stumble of a score less than 9.725. Alvarado-Reid put up another high score of 9.850 as her team notched its first 49.0-plus rotation of the night. ASU, meanwhile, put up its third 49.0-plus score on beam with solid scores throughout and standout performances from Clark and graduate Hannah Scharf that helped ASU put a 0.700 gap between itself and the Chippewas heading into the final event.

The fourth and final event of the night proved to be a dramatic one, as two ASU gymnasts hit snags in their tumbling passes – junior Alex Theodorou and senior Emily White, who scored an 8.325 and a 9.025, respectively – opening the door for Central Michigan to mount a possible comeback. On beam, however, the Chippewas started shaky, with graduate gymnast Ashley Veglucci falling and scoring a 9.100. They then proceeded to notch a 9.825, 9.675, 9.775, and a 9.825, tightening the Sun Devils’ lead and the meet as a whole, but two of ASU’s most experienced athletes and competitors, senior Jada Mangahas and Scharf, stepped up with the meet on the line. The pair put up a 9.850 and a 9.875 to seal the meet with some help from another fall, this time by Alvaro-Reid in the anchor slot, resulting in a costly deduction that put the meet out of hand. ASU took its first win of the season with a score of 195.725 to 195.125.

“We came so close to putting everything together,” head coach Jay Santos said. “It’s the first meet of the year … some nerves, definitely some things that have changed a little bit from what we’ve been practicing in the gym … We’re putting together a nice start, and to me, it’s a good start, but it could have been a really good start, but we’ve just got to go from here, keep working, clean up a few more things and hit a meet.”