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ASU gymnastics season ends as Allex, Sundby fall short in NCAA Regionals

Taylor Allex and Natasha Sundby had solid performances but they were no match for Oklahoma, others in the Norman Regional.

Taylor Allex- women's gymnastics

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.


The ASU gymnastics season came to an end Saturday with junior Taylor Allex and senior Natasha Sundby giving the final performances of the year in the Norman Regional in Norman, Oklahoma.

Allex performed as an all-around athlete while Sundby gave a single performance on the floor exercise as ASU's only representatives in NCAA Regional competition.

"I thought they both did a good job," ASU head coach Rene Lyst said. "I'm really proud of their efforts. They both represented the university very well, they had solid performances and they had a good time."

Oklahoma, last year's co-national champions, won the meet with a 197.625 overall score.

Allex finished 14th in the all-around with a 38.425, which was won by Oregon State's Madeline Gardiner who scored a 39.350.

Allex had a solid day, scoring a 9.825 on on the vault, 9.775 on the floor, 9.700 on the bars and 9.125 on the balance beam, but she wasn't satisfied with her overall performance. 

"It didn't go as well as I planned or wanted," Allex said. "But I just have to move on and do better next year."

Sundby scored a 9.625 on the floor which ranked 41st in the Regional.

She was also unhappy with her work in the routine, but had a different mentality than Allex, knowing it was her final performance in an ASU leotard.

"It wasn't my best performance but I went into it with the outlook of 'I just want to have fun'," Sundby said. "I think we did that this entire trip, it's been a blast. It didn't go exactly how I wanted but I can't be too disappointed with it."

Sundby has been an anchor on ASU's team for all four of her collegiate years and found a bittersweet moment preparing for the floor event on Saturday, knowing it was to be her last performance.

"It actually hit me before my routine, which is funny because that doesn't usually happen," Sundby said. "I had my parents there which was really cool because they are from California and made the trip out (to Oklahoma) to watch my last routine."

Neither Allex nor Sundby scored high enough to advance to the National Championships, so ASU's season is officially finished.

"This is the end of the season," Lyst said. "Tasha is done as a senior graduating and Taylor will be looking forward to coming back next season and being even better."

Allex was competing in her first Regional as a Sun Devil after competing with Utah her freshman season.

She said competing as an individual was a little bit as she expected and a little bit unexpected.

One thing she found especially unexpected was having a fellow Pac-12 school cheer her on during the competition.

"Oregon (State) was really good, they cheered for me, they were super polite and kind of treated me as if I was on the team so that was helpful," Allex said.

As for everything else, Allex tried treating the Regional as any other meet.

"We practiced for it, we did the same type of warm-ups that I would do anyway so that made it something like what I expected," she said.

Sundby, who has been to Regional competition in each of her four years at ASU, found Saturday's meet to be unique since she was competing without her team there.

"It was a lot different because I've never gone to Regionals or had any other competitions as just an individual," Sundby said. "It was a lot different in that aspect but it was really nice having Taylor, one of my teammates, here with me."

Sundby will hang up her leotard for good while Allex and others on the Gym Devils will hang them up until next season kicks off in the spring of 2016.

You can click here to see all the final results from the Norman Regional.

Reach the reporter at mtquesad@asu.edu or follow @mitchTquesada on Twitter.

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