March 13, 2002
TEMPE, Ariz. -Coming off a career-best performance on balance beam versus Utah State and Southern Utah last Friday, Arizona State sophomore Amber Giorgianni was named the Pac-10 Conference Gymnast of The Week for March 4-11, officials announced Wednesday.
In just her second competitive routine after missing almost a year due to a severe knee injury, Giorgianni (San Jose, Calif.) scored a meet-high 9.925 on beam, improving upon her previous best of 9.875 set last season against Washington (Feb. 2, 2001). The next closest competitor Friday was freshman teammate Kari Muth with a 9.875.
Although the Sun Devils did suffer two falls on beam, ASU finished the meet with its highest away score of the season (196.100) to pick up wins over both USU (195.425) and SUU (195.275) and jump from 17th to 13th in the national GymInfo rankings.
In just two meets, Giorgianni has helped bolster a beam rotation that has been the Sun Devils' Achilles heel this season. Before her 2002 debut against Arizona, March 1, ASU had completed only 23 of 42 beam routines (.547 average) without taking a fall worth a 0.5-point deduction. But with the addition of Giorgianni and senior Laura Moon to the beam lineup, ASU hit all six routines versus the Wildcats en route to a school-record 49.650 total on beam that led the way for a school-record meet total of 197.850.
Last season, Giorgianni turned in a combined 13 routines on beam and vault through the first eight meets of the year. But at the ninth meet of the season, just minutes before ASU was to start its competition vs. Auburn, Giorgianni went down in the final warm-up on vault, suffering a torn ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) that rendered her out for the year.
Before making her competitive return on beam this season, Giorgianni did make an exhibition appearance on uneven bars in the 2002 season opener, January 11.
The Sun Devils are off from competition this week in preparation for the Pac-10 Championships, March 23, in Stanford, Calif. Following the conference meet, the Sun Devils will be one of six teams competing in the NCAA South Central Regional, to be held at Wells Fargo Arena, April 6.