By Craig Morgan, thesundevils.com Writer
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Sun Devils freshman gymnast Cairo Leonard-Baker has a love-hate relationship with the bars.
At a 2015 event with Head Over Heels Gymnastics Club in Emeryville, California, she "broke her leg in half" trying a difficult skill on the bars. Following a lengthy healing and rehab process, she faced a tough and ironic choice upon her return. The only event whose rigors her body could withstand was the bars.
"I guess it made it easy to fall in love with it again and really get better at it," she said, laughing. "It's all I could do for three months, maybe more."
Leonard-Baker has recorded three straight 9.900-plus scores on the bars, including a career-high 9.950 in the No. 12 Sun Devils' win over Cal on Sunday in Tempe that is tied for the fifth-highest score in the nation. It is her progression on the beam, however that has made her an all-around threat.
After recording a career-high all-around score of 39.575 against Cal, Leonard-Baker earned Pac-12 Freshman/Newcomer of the week honors for a third consecutive week, becoming the first gymnast in ASU history to win conference honors in back-to-back-to-back awards cycles. She joins Ashley Kelly and Laura Moon as the only three gymnasts in Arizona State's history to earn multiple weekly conference honors.
"We knew she had the potential to be an all-arounder for us," Sun Devils associate head coach Jess Santos said. "With a freshman, you never know what to expect, but we knew that athletically, and gymnastics-wise, she was super talented.
"With the beam, I think we saw the most improvement because she knew she was most behind on that event. We're extremely deep on that event. We've been scoring really well and she knows if she wants to stay in that lineup she has to do better so she did whatever it took to get there."
When Leonard-Baker arrived at ASU, Santos removed three skills from her beam routine and had her incorporate a straddle jump layout.
"That was very helpful because I always got deductions on those three skills," she said. "With the straddle jump layout, it's a lot easier to get no deductions."
Leonard-Baker committed to ASU before coach Jay Santos and Jess Santos arrived, but they watched her on tape, they saw her live and they came to the conclusion that she was a gymnast they wanted in the program.
"If you were going to describe her, dynamic would probably be a good way to do it," Jay Santos said. "I don't want to say she has attitude because attitude almost has a negative connotation. She has a good attitude. She's competitive. She's got a little bit of an edge that way and she can get a little sassy at times. Honestly, she's kind of fun to have in the gym."
The coaches like the fire Leonard-Baker brings to a program in which they are still trying to instill a hard-working culture of accountability and high performance.
"It's always good to have some of your more successful kids be some of your harder workers because it moves the group along," Jay Santos said. "There's always the dirty word of potential that so many kids have, but she's a good kid, she works hard and she's competitive. You can teach it to a point but some kids are just a little more competitive than others. We're just trying to foster that and grow that and see where she can go."
Leonard-Baker admits that adjusting to college life and a Division I sport has been challenging as a freshman, particularly from a time management standpoint. She is also genuinely surprised by her early success, but she is keeping her goals in front of her.
The team has won its last three meets and wants to maintain a Regional Qualifying Score of 196.5. Leonard-Baker wants to be an All-American on the bars where she is currently ranked 15th in the nation, mostly because she scored a 9.70 in her first collegiate meet.
"We all know we're on the right path but we're not really treating our success like we don't have to try as hard any more," she said. "Jay tells us every week that what happened in the last meet doesn't matter. Yes, we did really well and we won, but it's a completely new meet against completely new people so it's time to focus again."
Leonard-Baker said she is enjoying the newfound team aspect of her sport.
"In club, coaches approached it as being an individual sport so coming here, it was hard for me to change my mindset to doing it for the team," she said. "In preseason, that was my goal so I'm always telling myself, 'the team needs me to straighten my legs or the team needs me to stick my dismount.'
"I like this approach way better. It feels like it takes pressure off of me. I know if I do something wrong, I can trust my teammates to go up and hit it. I'm just going into every meet trying to beat myself and trying to push the team to be what I know we can be: amazing."
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TEMPE, Ariz. -- Sun Devils freshman gymnast Cairo Leonard-Baker has a love-hate relationship with the bars.
At a 2015 event with Head Over Heels Gymnastics Club in Emeryville, California, she "broke her leg in half" trying a difficult skill on the bars. Following a lengthy healing and rehab process, she faced a tough and ironic choice upon her return. The only event whose rigors her body could withstand was the bars.
"I guess it made it easy to fall in love with it again and really get better at it," she said, laughing. "It's all I could do for three months, maybe more."
Leonard-Baker has recorded three straight 9.900-plus scores on the bars, including a career-high 9.950 in the No. 12 Sun Devils' win over Cal on Sunday in Tempe that is tied for the fifth-highest score in the nation. It is her progression on the beam, however that has made her an all-around threat.
After recording a career-high all-around score of 39.575 against Cal, Leonard-Baker earned Pac-12 Freshman/Newcomer of the week honors for a third consecutive week, becoming the first gymnast in ASU history to win conference honors in back-to-back-to-back awards cycles. She joins Ashley Kelly and Laura Moon as the only three gymnasts in Arizona State's history to earn multiple weekly conference honors.
"We knew she had the potential to be an all-arounder for us," Sun Devils associate head coach Jess Santos said. "With a freshman, you never know what to expect, but we knew that athletically, and gymnastics-wise, she was super talented.
"With the beam, I think we saw the most improvement because she knew she was most behind on that event. We're extremely deep on that event. We've been scoring really well and she knows if she wants to stay in that lineup she has to do better so she did whatever it took to get there."
When Leonard-Baker arrived at ASU, Santos removed three skills from her beam routine and had her incorporate a straddle jump layout.
"That was very helpful because I always got deductions on those three skills," she said. "With the straddle jump layout, it's a lot easier to get no deductions."
Leonard-Baker committed to ASU before coach Jay Santos and Jess Santos arrived, but they watched her on tape, they saw her live and they came to the conclusion that she was a gymnast they wanted in the program.
"If you were going to describe her, dynamic would probably be a good way to do it," Jay Santos said. "I don't want to say she has attitude because attitude almost has a negative connotation. She has a good attitude. She's competitive. She's got a little bit of an edge that way and she can get a little sassy at times. Honestly, she's kind of fun to have in the gym."
The coaches like the fire Leonard-Baker brings to a program in which they are still trying to instill a hard-working culture of accountability and high performance.
"It's always good to have some of your more successful kids be some of your harder workers because it moves the group along," Jay Santos said. "There's always the dirty word of potential that so many kids have, but she's a good kid, she works hard and she's competitive. You can teach it to a point but some kids are just a little more competitive than others. We're just trying to foster that and grow that and see where she can go."
Leonard-Baker admits that adjusting to college life and a Division I sport has been challenging as a freshman, particularly from a time management standpoint. She is also genuinely surprised by her early success, but she is keeping her goals in front of her.
The team has won its last three meets and wants to maintain a Regional Qualifying Score of 196.5. Leonard-Baker wants to be an All-American on the bars where she is currently ranked 15th in the nation, mostly because she scored a 9.70 in her first collegiate meet.
"We all know we're on the right path but we're not really treating our success like we don't have to try as hard any more," she said. "Jay tells us every week that what happened in the last meet doesn't matter. Yes, we did really well and we won, but it's a completely new meet against completely new people so it's time to focus again."
Leonard-Baker said she is enjoying the newfound team aspect of her sport.
"In club, coaches approached it as being an individual sport so coming here, it was hard for me to change my mindset to doing it for the team," she said. "In preseason, that was my goal so I'm always telling myself, 'the team needs me to straighten my legs or the team needs me to stick my dismount.'
"I like this approach way better. It feels like it takes pressure off of me. I know if I do something wrong, I can trust my teammates to go up and hit it. I'm just going into every meet trying to beat myself and trying to push the team to be what I know we can be: amazing."
Follow Craig Morgan on Twitter