The Gym Devils have underachieved this season, but are still confident, prepared and comfortable going into the NCAA regionals.
The ASU women’s gymnastics team (6–14, 4–10 Pac-12) is the No. 5 seed in the Salt Lake City Regional this Saturday.
It will be joined by the region’s No. 1 seed, Nebraska, host Utah, Minnesota, Iowa State and San Jose State.
The Sun Devils’ score will determine if they will qualify for NCAA nationals.
Confidence has never been a problem for ASU, and this weekend will be no different.
“I think everyone is going into this meet more confident than we’ve had in the past. I think our last meet that we had went well — better than we expected,” freshman Natasha Sundby said. “I think everyone is going into this weekend feeling pretty confident with themselves and the team.”
The Gym Devils have been on a slump lately and have not performed to their potential.
Inconsistency has plagued them during the second half of the season.
The Gym Devils seem prepared for the high level of competition. They have had two weeks of preparation since the Pac-12 championships where they took sixth place.
“I feel that we are pretty prepared,” senior Beaté Jones said. “It’s awesome that we’re going to Utah again because we’ve already competed there, so we know how the equipment is. We just have to focus on what we need to do and do what we’ve been doing at practice, and I think we’ll be good.”
Jones was named to the Pac-12 second team last week.
Besides feeling confident and prepared coming into regionals, ASU feels rather comfortable as well.
This will be their second consecutive meet in Utah.
Their routine concerning travel, setup and fan attendance will feel very familiar, which in turn, could help them focus on the task at hand.
Utah gymnastics is one of three women’s sports across the nation that averages more than 11,000 fans per event this season. Alabama gymnastics and Tennessee basketball are the other two.
There is no doubt the Gym Devils will be more prepared for the massive crowd than some of their other opponents.
ASU has seen success when it has had consistency throughout the meet. In a way, the Sun Devils’ formula for success is quite simple.
“We need to hit our routines — all of them,” coach John Spini said. “We want to do well because other teams notice (that) we’re not hitting our routines, that’s when other teams start hearing footsteps.”
Reach the reporter at gdemano@asu.edu
