The Sun Devils have been struggling since their 4-0 start, but they have seen progress in nearly every meet.
The No. 22 ASU (4-5, 2-4 Pac-12) gymnastics team fell to the No. 25 Washington Huskies (5-7, 2-3 Pac-12) 193.850–195.725 on Friday night.
The Sun Devils saw some strong individual performances, but haven’t seen the entire team score big in a while. Uncharacteristic mistakes kept the team from having solid scores in each event.
“I think our first event really started off well, but when our back kids, our two seniors, (Stephanie Hangartner and Kahoku Palafox) went down, it kind of really hurt us because those are our big scoring routines,” coach John Spini said. “I think we just lost some energy.”
It isn’t often the Sun Devils’ most consistent uneven bars gymnasts both go down. The squad started off decent, but didn’t finish strong. Senior Beaté Jones led the Sun Devils with a 9.775 on the bars.
“Then, we did the same on bars as we did on beam with the back side,” Spini said. “Our best two routines were struggling, and it really hurt us and it showed there.”
However, freshman Natelle Gentile broke her season-high score she set last week, scoring a 9.825.
Freshman Brianna Gades tied for second place on the beam with a 9.850 and also competed in the all-around for the first time.
“It was really cool,” Gades said. “It was exciting. I was nervous at first, but I was happy I got to do it.”
Gades scored a 38.975 and took third in the all-around.
Despite poor performances in their strongest events, the Sun Devils did well on vault, though the scores didn’t represent that. ASU posted a 48.775 in the event.
“When we went to vault, I think we vaulted better than we have all season,” Spini said.
Unlike bars and beam, Jones and Seaman strongly finished vault by scoring 9.800s.
Jones also led ASU on the floor exercise. She posted a 9.850 and tied for first overall in the floor event. Jones competed in the all-around once again and took second, posting a 39.050.
Washington sophomore McKenzie Fechter won the all-around for the Huskies with a 39.250.
Reach the reporter at gdemano@asu.edu
Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
