The ASU gymnastics team returned home on Monday night after three weeks of away meets to take on Cal in its fourth Pac-12 matchup of the season.
The Gym Devils posted a season-high 48.800 on bars, but fell to the Golden Bears 196.900-194.725.
Senior Carissa Kraus scored a season-high 9.825 on bars and matched her season-high on vault with a 9.625, showing the work she’s put into the two events since the season began.
“All the energy we’ve had throughout our meets has been a huge help to doing better with both of the two events that I do, so it just feels really good that I can come back from any mistakes that I’ve had earlier in the season and redeem myself and show them what I got,” Kraus said.
Freshmen Eileen Imbus, Katelyn Lentz and Corinne Belkoff all posted career-highs on bars that helped the team after freshman Heather Udowitch posted two falls in her routine.
Head coach René Lyst said the focus of improving on bars has been on being more consistent.
“At the beginning of the year we were very inconsistent on that event and even though we had a mistake today, the team, I thought, handled that challenge really well and was very poised,” Lyst said.
Udowitch bounced back from her falls on bars and matched a career-high on beam with a score of 9.775.
Junior Beka Conrad also posted a season-high on beam and matched her career-high in the event with a 9.825.
The Gym Devils continued to shine on floor, with four of six competitors posting and matching career highs.
Udowitch set a career-high with a score of 9.800, senior Allie Salas set a season-high and matched her career-high with a 9.850, and senior Taylor Allex set a career-high with a 9.950 and tied for first overall in the event.
Allex also tied for second overall on vault with a 9.875.
Belkoff matched her career-high on floor with a 9.875 and set a career-high on beam with a 9.800 in her second all-around for ASU.
“It was really exciting just to be around the home crowd and everything and reassure myself that I can get those scores,” Belkoff said.
Belkoff placed second in the all-around, while Salas placed third.
Lentz also competed in the all-around, but despite posting a career-high on bars, recorded falls in both beam and floor.
Lyst said Lentz has been competing in the all-around since the first meet and got tired Monday night. In club gymnastics, Lentz is used to competing in five meets for the entire season and so far the Gym Devils have already competed that many times and are only halfway through their season, Lyst said.
“They’re putting their hearts out there and that’s all you can ask for,” Lyst said.
Reach the reporter at haley.stesiak@asu.edu or follow @haley_stesiak on Twitter.
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