On Friday, the ASU gymnastics team was defeated for the first time at home this season. But considering the Sun Devils' curve of improvement from their previous competition a week ago, the meet was by and large considered a success.
ASU earned its second-highest team score of the season, a 196.5, during the UNO's Classic at Wells Fargo Arena before 1,144 fans - the 10th largest crowd in school history. The mark was good enough to trounce the lowly Air Force Academy (190.6), but not good enough to edge out No. 4 Utah, who escaped Tempe with a 196.85.
Following the meet, however, the Sun Devils were all smiles as they suffered only three falls during 24 routines on the night - a sharp contrast from the shocking 10 spills the team endured during a meet at Washington on Feb. 13.
"We're starting to show everyone who we really are," sophomore all-around performer Ashley Kelly said. "We're so much better than what we've been showing, and I think we brought it together tonight."
Kelly won the all-around, the sixth time she has done so in her short ASU career, with a score of 39.750 despite suffering a 102-degree temperature before the meet. Kelly placed in the top three in all four events, and won both the uneven bars (9.925) and balance beam (9.975).
"I don't know if being sick is better, and I just don't think about things and just do them, or what," Kelly said, whose mark on the balance beam was a career-high, and was awarded a 10 by one judge. "But I was a little surprised (by my performance)."
Kelly got almost as good a workout following the meet as she did during it, as she had to get up countless times from her spot sitting with teammates after the meet to walk to the scorers' table, and accept roses from officials for her high placement in each event.
Going into the Sun Devils' final event of the night - floor exercise - they knew they needed a strong performance to beat Utah. Head coach John Spini nearly decided to hold Kelly out of the event due to her illness. When it was Kelly's turn to take the floor, a solid performance was essential as freshman April Boone had already fallen on her routine, and earned a 9.125.
"[Spini] said 'I might pull you from floor,' and I was like 'no way,'" Kelly said. "He trusts me and let me make the call."
The decision paid off as Kelly scored a 9.975.
Following Kelly's performance, freshman Cassandra Jusino took a spill of her own and sprained her ankle in the process. Then, many thought the meet hung in the balance with the performance of team icon, senior Maggie Germaine, who stepped onto the floor with a chip on her shoulder after falling earlier on the vault.
Germaine executed a flawless performance that brought the crowd to its feet and raised the decibel level. After the noise died down, the judge then raised the score. It read "10.000," and the crowd erupted all over again.
"[Floor] is definitely my favorite event, especially at home because the crowd is into it, and it's our last hurrah before we are done," Germaine said. "Obviously I was hoping it was enough to beat Utah, but we just barely missed them."
As has been the case this season, Spini said he was still concerned with the team's performance on the vault (48.85), and said the team would have had a chance to beat Utah had it not been forced to count a fall on the floor exercise.
"Two freshmen go up on floor and miss," Spini said. "It's a close meet and tenths count. Neither one of them have missed that skill they were doing."
Reach the reporter at christopher.drexel@asu.edu.
