The Gym Devils know how talented they are. They have since the beginning of the season.
With more than half of the season over, they set their expectations high for where they want to end.
The No. 24 ASU gymnastics team (4-3, 2-2 Pac-12) is on the rise and looking to score big in its meet versus the No. 6 UCLA Bruins.
The Pac-12 is always one of the strongest conferences in the nation, and the Bruins are regularly one of its top teams.
Fortunately, the Gym Devils find competing in the same gym with the Bruins a positive.
“I love competing against UCLA because we know that they’re one of the best teams that we have around here,” senior Beaté Jones said. “It’s just good to go against good competition. Even at their meet, when you go against better teams, you get the benefit of the doubt with your scores too.”
ASU is in need of a high road score, to improve its season average and national ranking.
UCLA (7-1-1, 3-1-1 Pac-12) is competing at a high level and will provide the Sun Devils with an opportunity to post the high scores they seek.
ASU has seen improvement from its gymnasts after every meet.
“We made a little adjustment in the bar rotation order and I think it helped us having (senior Kahoku Palafox) in the backside of the lineup, and the score showed it,” assistant coach Tom Ward said. “So that’s the kind of scores we’re going to need in order to break the 196.”
Palafox was moved to the last position in the uneven bars lineup last meet and posted a season high 9.875.
ASU’s uneven bars event has been very consistent all season and is ranked No. 23 in the nation.
Bars specialist senior Stephanie Hangartner has a big part in it.
Hangartner knows she and her teammates have yet to peak and are still on the rise.
“I think we still have room to build and grow, and we really want to get a high 48 or low 49,” Hangartner said. “That would be really cool, and we definitely can do that.”
The Sun Devils are also ranked No. 18 on the balance beam.
Since last year, ASU has seen its biggest improvement on the beam event. The Sun Devils saw steady success in the event after it was arguably their worst last season.
The Bruins are led by 2008 USA Olympics selection, sophomore Samantha Peszek.
Reach the reporter at gdemano@asu.edu
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