ASU gymnastics will need poise, focus and endurance as it faces a tough road test Friday night and then another meet Sunday at home.
The Sun Devils (1-1, 0-1 Pac-10) first head to Salt Lake City to take on No. 3 Utah (3-1, 1-1) in an environment that will be a significant test of ASU’s confidence.
“It’s absolutely amazing to compete in Utah,” senior Mary Atkinson said. “They basically sell out their basketball stadium for their gymnastics meets.”
ASU must tighten up its routines for Friday’s Pac-10 meet in order to raise its scores from a Jan. 28 victory over Brown.
“We do need to pull off a pretty big score this weekend because we have to count three away meet scores [as part of qualification for regionals],” senior Brittany Schuett said. “We haven’t quite gotten to the overall score that we want to be at yet.”
Utah is coming off a loss to No. 2 Stanford on Jan. 28 that came down to less than a half point. The loss ended a 20 dual home regular season win streak for the Utes.
However, the Sun Devils know exactly what they need to work on in order to raise their overall scores.
“[We need to] not count a fall, to start with,” Atkinson said. “Also, there are areas where we can clean up landings, stick dismounts, hit handstands on bars and not take any kind of major wobble or balance check on beam.”
ASU has made several adjustments during practice in preparation for this weekend.
“This week, we’ve been focusing a lot on our presentation and making sure our dance on floor is engaging for the judges, for the audience,” Atkinson said. “We’ve been training beam aggressively. We don’t want to get up there and be worried about a fall; we want to go up there and do our beam routine almost with a little bit of an attitude.”
In addition to serving as an early benchmark, the road trip will give the Sun Devils time to grow closer as a team.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Schuett said. “We usually do a team activity before the meet. I’m not sure what we’re doing this time, but it’s typically shopping or something along that nature.”
Following the competition against the Utes, ASU will return home to take on No. 7 Oregon State (2-1, 0-1) on Sunday inside Wells Fargo Arena.
The Beavers recently lost to defending national champion UCLA by less than a tenth of a point.
“I think being mentally prepared for [two meets in one weekend] is going to be the biggest key,” Atkinson said. “But I think as far as our fitness, our team is as fit as we’ve ever been, so we should be able to handle it on a physical level.”
Following Sunday’s meet, ASU’s next competition is on Feb. 11 versus Cal at home.
Reach the reporter at kyle.j.newman@asu.edu
