GETTING BACK UP: Sophomore Stephanie Hangartner performs a balance beam routine during ASU’s 194.650-196.925 loss to Oregon State. ASU will participate in a tri-meet with BYU and Boise State on Friday in Provo, Utah. (Photo by Nikolai de Vera)

If it’s now or never, ASU gymnastics coach John Spini would prefer now.

“This is the biggest meet of the year for us [so far],” Spini said. “We still just have not put it all together, but we are going to have to figure it out.”

Dropping out of the top 25 for the first time in four weeks, the ASU women’s gymnastics team will try to right its ship Friday when it takes on No. 22 Boise State (11-1) and Brigham Young University (3-9) in Provo, Utah.

BSU defeated BYU in a tri-meet competition last week by almost two full points.

The Sun Devils (2-9) currently are counting two sub-par away scores of 193.475 and 192.825 in their regional qualifying score.

ASU must perform well in its last two contests in order to drop those low scores.

“It‘s really important,” sophomore Kahoku Palafox said. “Everyone’s [got to] know what they have to get done and have confidence that they know how to do it.”

All season, the balance beam has held the Sun Devils hostage, but Spini isn’t about to enter panic mode just yet.

“We are trying to do the same beam lineup, even though they struggled a little bit [last week],” Spini said. “We don’t want to switch it. We just switched it last week, so we have to let them keep practicing and not overreact to mistakes.”

The only change might be the addition of stellar freshman Nickie Johnson, who has improved all year, to the all-around.

“Nickie looked great at the last meet,” Spini said. “We’ve been pushing Nickie hard all year.”

Friday’s meet will be an Aloha reunion of sorts when Palafox meets up with fellow Hawaiian gymnast, sophomore Kara Mun of BYU.

“She went to a rival gym,” Palafox said.

Mun finished fourth in the all-around at the 2008 Hawaiian State Championships, while Palafox placed second.

Reach the reporter at tyler.emerick@asu.edu

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Categories: Gymnastics Sports