ASU junior Taylor Allex scores a 9.125, even after a fall on the balance beam. ASU lost to Oregon State in a tough defeat at Wells Fargo Arena on Feb. 20, 2015. (Kat Simonovic/The State Press)The ASU gymnastics team is traveling north to take on Southern Utah on Friday in a rematch of both teams' season opener.
The Thunderbirds have won five straight meets after losing their first four of the season.
ASU's only meet win of the season was against Southern Utah on Jan. 9, and the Sun Devils have had bad luck with injuries since.
And yet, with the Pac-12 season over and back to back nonconference meets upcoming, ASU is optimistic it can make a push to end the season on a high note.
"We know we can do our routines, and everyone is confident in their abilities," ASU head coach Rene Lyst said. "We need to go in and not count any major mistakes and keep moving forward."
ASU has been able to move forward each and every weekend despite only recently getting some gymnasts back from injury.
Junior Allie Salas has been a consistent all-around athlete all season but she admitted the long season affects everyone.
"Once you get towards the end of the season, your body gets tired, but you just have to keep fighting through, and that's what we're all doing right now," Salas said.
As sore as everyone might be, there is still a need to stay mentally focused through practice in order to succeed on weekends.
Salas said her point of focus this week was both mental and physical.
"I focused on staying aggressive," Salas said. "I also focused on some small details for each event, like sticking vault and sticking dismounts."
Lyst said paying attention to details can be crucial to success and that's why the Sun Devils focus so hard on it in practice, especially this week.
"We tried to clean up our form," Lyst said. "We're working on our landings. We're just paying attention to all the details in order to maximize our scoring potential each weekend."
And the focus isn't on any specific routine; it's on finishing each routine even better than the last.
"I've told the girls all along, we need to be the best we can be on Friday and that's on every single event," Lyst said. "No event is more important than another and no event can score higher than another. We need to do all of our routines to the best of our ability and if we can do that, we'll have done a good job at the end of the day."
ASU will take on Southern Utah on Friday, March 6, at 7 p.m.
Reach the reporter at mtquesad@asu.edu or follow @mitchTquesada on Twitter.
Like State Press Sports on Facebook and follow @statepresssport on Twitter.
