ASU junior Allie Salas performs her balance beam routine against Stanford on Saturday Jan. 31, 2015, at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe. Salas finished her routine with a score of 9.725. (Krista Tillman/ The State Press)Despite a number of strong all-around performances from the Gym Devils, the ASU gymnastics team fell short to the No. 19 Stanford Cardinal, 196.525-193.775, on Saturday night at Wells Fargo Arena.
Junior Allie Salas led the all-around athletes for the Gym Devils, scoring a 39.075 total with a high score of 9.850 on the vault.
Junior Stephanie Miceli got off to a slow start with a 9.625 score on the vault, but she finished strong with a 9.875 on the balance beam.
"Balance beam was my strongest event tonight," Miceli said. "I've been training really hard at the gym to just fix little details (about the routine) and I think it paid off tonight."
Miceli had a 39.025 total all-around score that was her season-high and came just 0.050 points shy of matching her career-high.
"I really concentrated on having my team behind me and using the energy from them," she said. "(I focused on) taking one thing at a time and not getting ahead of myself and just living in the moment."
ASU had another strong performance from sophomore Beka Conrad, who competed all-around for the first time this season on Saturday.
Typically, she performs all events except the vault, but she competed on the vault on Saturday to replace senior Natasha Sundby, who missed the match because of an illness.
"I've been wanting to compete on vault, but I've been having some mental blocks on it," Conrad said. "Tasha was sick this meet so she was out and the coaches threw me in but I was really happy to be thrown in there because I really wanted to help my team out."
Conrad had a respectable 9.600 at the event in her debut and scored a 9.800 on the floor.
"Tonight I was really proud of floor," Conrad said. "For the past couple of meets, I've been having some slip-ups and tonight I went out, gave it my all and tried to have the most fun I could and I hit it."
The Gym Devils had a strong rotation on the bars where five gymnasts scored at least a 9.700.
Junior Carissa Kraus had a strong routine on the bars until she fell, scoring a 6.450. She did not compete in any other event for the rest of the night.
Head coach Rene Lyst said Kraus has an ankle injury that she aggravated in the fall.
"She has a very tender ankle, so when she doesn't land right it hurts," Lyst said. "She competed but she landed bad in warm-ups and when she competed in bars she landed bad. She's fine it just hurts a lot."
Lyst said she enjoyed the team's effort on the balance beam, where no Gym Devil scored lower than a 9.650.
"We improved the most on balance beam tonight," Lyst said. "They were aggressive, they were consistent, they showed a lot of poise and presentation. I was really proud of how they did on that event."
Junior Taylor Allex was another key to ASU's strong night, scoring a 9.850 on the beam, a 9.800 on the floor and a 9.900 on the vault, which led all gymnasts from both schools.
ASU competed a gymnast short on the floor and vault rotations, the second week in a row they have been short because of injuries.
You can click here to see the final scores and results from the meet.
Next, ASU gymnastics will travel to Salt Lake City on Friday, Feb. 6 to take on the Utah Utes in a Pac-12 matchup.
Reach the reporter at mtquesad@asu.edu or follow @mitchTquesada on Twitter.
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