March 8, 2002
LOGAN, Utah - Arizona State's women's gymnastics team was not only looking for a pair of wins in its second meetings of the season with Utah State and Southern Utah, Friday at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum in Logan, Utah, it was also looking for a quality road score to bring up its Regional Qualifying Score.
The 17th-ranked Sun Devils accomplished all of the above, placing first among the three team field with their second-best score of the season overall, tops on the road, at 196.100, while Utah State came in second at 195.425 and Southern Utah accounted for third at 195.275.
With the wins, ASU moved to 8-5-1 on the season, while Utah State moved to 5-11 and Southern Utah fell to 2-7. More importantly, ASU boosted its RQS from 195.135 to 195.435, however the Sun Devils will have to wait until Monday to see how far, or if, they move up in the national rankings.
ASU hit 21 of its 24 routines for the night, having to count a fall on balance beam where Ashley Ellsberry suffered only her third fall of the last two seasons and Rhonda Robinette, who scored a perfect-10 last week, also took a 0.5 deduction.
The Sun Devils' highest score of the night was in fact on beam, as sophomore Amber Giorgianni earned a career-best 9.925 in only her second competitive performance back from a knee injury that kept her out of action for almost a year.
Kari Muth and Cassidy Vreeke were the only other Sun Devils to meet the 9.9 plateau. Muth, a freshman out of Mesa, Ariz., got a 9.9 on floor exercise to go with a 9.775 on uneven bars and a 9.875 on beam. Vreeke, a junior from Salt Lake City, Utah, also went for 9.9 on floor, on an evening when she posted a 9.7 vault and a 9.825 beam.
Maggie Germaine had another solid effort, tying Carla DeMartini for the team lead on vault with a 9.875, tying Ellsberry and Margaret Wojciak for the team lead on bars with a 9.875 and scoring a 9.825 on floor.
The Sun Devils' team score of 196.100 allowed them to drop their 194.600 score from the Masters Classic (Feb. 23) in factoring their RQS. ASU's improved RQS of 195.435 would rank them 13th according to this week's standings, but other schools' rankings are also likely to improve this weekend.
The Sun Devils have just one more chance to improve their RQS when they battle for a conference crown at the Pac-10 Championships, March 23, at Stanford, Calif. After that ASU will vie for its 20th trip to the NCAA Championships when it hosts and competes in the NCAA South Central Regional, April 6, at Wells Fargo Arena.