Season-high scores are meant to be set at the end of the season, but that wasn’t the case for the ASU gymnastics team at the Pac-10 Championships on Saturday.
The Sun Devils posted a season-low score of 190.450 en route to a last-place finish at the competition.
Oregon State took home its first Pac-10 title since 1996, defending champion and host UCLA took second, and upstart Washington rounded out the top three at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday.
All three finished with a score over 196.
“I think coming into the meet we were already kind of set up with a defeatist attitude just because of everything we’ve been dealt this year,” junior Madison Snowden said.
ASU, which has had more than its fair share of injuries this year, wasn’t able to shake off the bad luck for the meet this weekend.
“It’s definitely a difficult situation, you know, when you kind of already feel like you have everything against you,” Snowden said.
Things didn’t go well right from the get-go for ASU, who struggled to find its rhythm on their first event, floor exercise. The team never really found their groove after that.
“I think overall, it was a snowball effect,” Snowden said. “It started on floor a little bit, and then it slowly started falling apart at the seams.”
The multitude of injuries for ASU forced the Sun Devils to juggle their line-ups all season long, something that may explain the team’s lack of chemistry in each event.
“I think everyone understands the situation we’ve been put in with the injuries,” Snowden said. “It’s almost an impossible situation.”
The Pac-10 meet was ASU’s last chance to put up a high road score and improve their resume for regionals.
By posting such a low score, the Sun Devils could have hurt their chances for qualification.
“It really sucks, because that was our last opportunity to make an impression on people, especially in the Pac-10,” Snowden said.
The Sun Devils were down after the meet because they knew the last-place finish was a far cry from what they could have accomplished.
“I don’t think that [our performance] reflects our reputation of Arizona State gymnastics,” Snowden said.
Through all the injuries this year and the shaky performance at the conference tournament, however, the Sun Devils have only grown closer as a team.
“I think we showed a lot of heart today, and a lot of character, a lot of guts to just go out there and just put it all out on the floor,” Snowden said.
ASU finds out Monday if its season is over, or if the team moves on and qualifies for the NCAA Regional Championships on April 2.
Reach the reporter at kyle.j.newman@asu.edu
