Senior Natasha Sundby strikes a pose for the judges during a routine on Jan. 9, 2015, at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe. (Andrew Ybanez/The State Press)
The ASU gymnastics team scored its most points in a season opener since 2009 last Friday, but there is room for improvement — specifically on the vault.
The team didn't have enough gymnasts to drop a score in the vault against Southern Utah, and it hurt the team's performance in the event (47.975). Junior Kristine Levin (stress reaction in shin) competed in the floor event, but was not yet ready to return on vault, while junior Carissa Kraus (ankle injury) was able to compete on uneven bars, but not on vault.
Additionally, senior Morgan Steigerwalt didn't compete in any event in the opener and junior Stephanie Miceli is transitioning back to all-around after not practicing in the vault last year. Help may be on the way in the event, ASU coach René Lyst said.
"We’re hoping to see Kristine back in the vault, we’ll see how she does today," Lyst said Wednesday. "Hopefully Morgan will get on vault and Stephanie’s making a push to improve her vault. We’re getting better, so it’s just seeing where they’re at under pressure and if they can land their vaults strongly, then we’ll have them go this weekend and that will help us a lot."
Lyst said to be one of the top teams in the country, ASU will have to score above 196. If the team gets a couple vault scores up, its overall score would improve by eight-tenths, she added. ASU had a score of 194.2 in its last meet.
Miceli, who scored 9.425 in the vault and 38.375 overall, said she was doing a safe routine. She is hoping to do a full one either during the meet on Friday or later down the road.
No. 20 ASU will be competing in a tri-meet in Lexington against No. 2 LSU and Kentucky, though the rankings were last updated before Kentucky was in action on Monday. LSU scored 197.125 points in its first meet while Kentucky had 194.975.
“We notice it but we don’t really think about it," Miceli said of LSU's ranking. "We have a job to do. We just go into the meet, stay in our little bubble and just focus on us and try not think about anything else that’s going on. We’re not worried about other teams, just do what we have to do."
Because ASU is competing away from home, its rotations are in a different order. ASU will start on the balance beam, then go to floor and vault, finishing off with uneven bars. At home meets, ASU begins with vault and finishes with floor, arguably its best event.
"Every meet is a little bit different," Lyst said. "All championship meets are pretty much by random draw, so it’s nice to have different orders during the year, so you have that experience going into a regionals or a national championship knowing you’ve already competed in that order at some point."
ASU competes in Lexington, Kentucky on Friday, Jan. 16. The meet is expected to start at 5 p.m. Arizona time.
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