TEMPE, Ariz. - Sweeping all event titles and recording a top-10 score in program history, No. 17 Sun Devil Gymnastics scored a season-high 197.450 to defeat the Arizona Wildcats for the fifth year in a row at Desert Financial Arena on Wednesday afternoon.
Notable Stats
Arizona State Head Coach Jay Santos
"I'm thrilled today. We added this to replace the Stanford meet as an extra opportunity to make sure we give this team a chance to get a good team score. They showed up right from the start and took it all the way to the finish today. They never let up at all. Top to bottom, I think we had the most complete meet we've had so far this year. Really proud of what they did today and everything that they were able to accomplish. I'm really excited about what's going on right now and just excited to get to Washington (on Sunday)."
On beating Arizona
"We all know it means a little bit more. We can all try to claim this is just another meet. It's not just another meet, right? It's a rivalry. You never want to come up short on the rivalry. I think we had a great day, our team really looked good. They performed well all day long."
On season debuts for a few Gym Devils
"I'm really proud of Jordyn (Jaslow). She had a season-ending injury last year and it's been a bit of a road back. She's been plugging away. It's great to see her out there, great to see what she did. I think that was a great performance. She wasn't slated to be in the lineup, and we made a change for warmups. So she handled it great. Jas (Gutierrez), she hasn't competed since last year, and I think she did a fantastic job in the beam lineup today. She really, really did a nice routine. It's nice to get them in there and plug in some different players and see how they perform, and it was great to see them both step up and have a good day."
On keeping the momentum
"I think we're going to continue to have performances like this. I don't think there's anything majorly different that needs to happen as much as just really trying to hone in, find those little adjustments or those little spots where you can make a small change, get a little something back and just continue to really hone in on the performance. I think the message isn't going to be any different. We're going to keep preparing them the same way we do. It's just a matter of trying to get the best out of them every week, making sure we're putting them in a place that they're feeling good, feeling confident, putting them in a position to perform as best they can. And then you got a performance like this tonight, where it all comes together, it's just really good to see all that preparation come through. So, moving on to Washington will be the same message, we'll continue to work on those little details and go back to work and try to put another complete meet together, and that's going to be the goal from this point on. Moving into postseason, we're going to want to have those complete performances together."
Sophomore Hannah Scharf
On the season high team score
"Obviously with UofA being our rival school, we really wanted to take them down. Last time we got a 197.000, we had a lower beam score. So I think once we realized the scores that we were getting on beam were good, and then moving into the floor, we really just kind of used that energy from there to really zone in. So overall, we were feeling really excited throughout the day and our energy was up a lot."
Freshman Emily White
On her strong performance
"Today was a really great day for me. And I just feel like today it kind of all clicked, just doing what I know how to do in practice and doing it out on the floor when the pressure is on. And that was a really great feeling and I feel like this will definitely build my confidence going forward in practices and future competitions."
On the season high team score
"Yeah, it's definitely a really huge confidence booster for us. It wasn't anything like we were doing anything different out on the floor, we were just doing what we do in practice everyday. So I feel like today, we went out and we just had a little bit of a stronger beam rotation, and we just had a little bit more confidence building off that last 197.000. And I feel like this will definitely help us later in the season as well."
Final Results
The Gym Devils continued their strong performance on vault, scoring above a 49.000 for the third meet in a row. Freshman Smith led the way, scoring a 9.900 to win the event title. Scharf and Leonard-Baker both added scores of 9.875. Jada Mangahas contributed 9.850 to match her personal best. Jaslow made her collegiate debut, earning a 9.800.
Rotation Two: Bars, 49.400
The bars squad posted their highest score of the season with a 49.400, three Gym Devils scoring a 9.900 or better. White set a new career high with a 9.925 and Clark tied her career best with a 9.900. Reeves and Leonard-Barker both scored season-highs with a 9.825 and 9.900 respectively. Scharf also added a solid 9.850, continuing her streak of not scoring below a 9.825 this season.
Rotation Three: Beam, 49.350
The beam total was the highest for ASU since 2009, with all scores that counted being a 9.850 or better. White and Thompson set new career-highs scoring a 9.900 and 9.875, respectively. Scharf contributed a 9.875. Gutierrez and Reeves tied their career bests with a score of 9.850.
Rotation Four: Floor, 49.375
This is the fourth week in a row surpassing 49.000 on floor for ASU. Scharf scored a new career-high with a 9.950, which is the best floor score by a Sun Devil this season. Leonard-Baker tied her season high with a 9.900. Clark and Mangahas both contributed scores of 9.850.
Up Next
Arizona State will travel to Seattle to face Washington on Sunday, February 28. The meet will be live at 3 p.m. MST on the Washington Live Stream.
Five in a row against the cats ?? pic.twitter.com/AbC6BqHaav
— Sun Devil Gymnastics (@SunDevilGym) February 24, 2021
Notable Stats
- Arizona State (3-4) defeated Arizona (0-4) for the fifth-straight time. Sun Devil head coach Jay Santos has not lost to the Wildcats in his coaching tenure at ASU.
- ASU's 197.450 is tied for ninth in program history, matching scores from 2003 against Utah and 2001 against Arizona.
- The Gym Devils scored above a 197.000 for the second time this season, the first season reaching that mark at least twice in the same season since 2004.
- This was the first 197.000+ earned against Arizona since 2003 and the biggest margin of victory since 2013.
- The success on bars continues for the Gym Devils. They scored their highest total of the season and surpassed a 49.000 for the 11th meet in a row, dating back to last season. That streak ties the program record. Three Gym Devils scored a 9.900 or better on bars: Emily White (9.925), Sarah Clark (9.900) and Cairo Leonard-Baker (9.900).
- ASU earned its highest beam total since 2009 with a 49.350. All scores that counted were a 9.850 or higher.
- Freshman Emily White had a stand-out meet, winning the event titles on bars and beam. She scored a career-high 9.925 on bars, tied for the best score by the Gym Devils on bars this season. She also earned a personal best on beam with a 9.900.
- Sophomore Hannah Scharf won two titles, taking the all-around with a career-high 39.550 and the floor title with a career-best 9.950. Both are the highest scores by an ASU gymnast this season and the floor score is the highest since 2019.
- Freshman Anaya Smith scored a 9.900 on vault to win the event title, her second week in a row surpassing that score. She has not scored below a 9.875 for the last four meets.
- Showing her senior leadership, Cairo Leonard-Baker earned high marks on all three events she competed. She started with a 9.875 on vault before earning a season-high 9.900 on bars. On floor, she matched her season best with a 9.900.
- Beam specialist Megan Thompson led off for the Gym Devils on beam and scored a career-high 9.875.
- A couple of Gym Devils made lineups for the first time this season. Sophomore Jordyn Jaslow made her collegiate debut on vault, scoring a 9.800. Junior Jasmine Gutierrez made the beam lineup for the first time in 2021, earning a 9.850, which matched her personal best on that event.
- Sophomore Gracie Reeves had a strong meet. She scored a season-high 9.825 on bars and matched her career-high on beam with a 9.850.
Arizona State Head Coach Jay Santos
"I'm thrilled today. We added this to replace the Stanford meet as an extra opportunity to make sure we give this team a chance to get a good team score. They showed up right from the start and took it all the way to the finish today. They never let up at all. Top to bottom, I think we had the most complete meet we've had so far this year. Really proud of what they did today and everything that they were able to accomplish. I'm really excited about what's going on right now and just excited to get to Washington (on Sunday)."
On beating Arizona
"We all know it means a little bit more. We can all try to claim this is just another meet. It's not just another meet, right? It's a rivalry. You never want to come up short on the rivalry. I think we had a great day, our team really looked good. They performed well all day long."
On season debuts for a few Gym Devils
"I'm really proud of Jordyn (Jaslow). She had a season-ending injury last year and it's been a bit of a road back. She's been plugging away. It's great to see her out there, great to see what she did. I think that was a great performance. She wasn't slated to be in the lineup, and we made a change for warmups. So she handled it great. Jas (Gutierrez), she hasn't competed since last year, and I think she did a fantastic job in the beam lineup today. She really, really did a nice routine. It's nice to get them in there and plug in some different players and see how they perform, and it was great to see them both step up and have a good day."
On keeping the momentum
"I think we're going to continue to have performances like this. I don't think there's anything majorly different that needs to happen as much as just really trying to hone in, find those little adjustments or those little spots where you can make a small change, get a little something back and just continue to really hone in on the performance. I think the message isn't going to be any different. We're going to keep preparing them the same way we do. It's just a matter of trying to get the best out of them every week, making sure we're putting them in a place that they're feeling good, feeling confident, putting them in a position to perform as best they can. And then you got a performance like this tonight, where it all comes together, it's just really good to see all that preparation come through. So, moving on to Washington will be the same message, we'll continue to work on those little details and go back to work and try to put another complete meet together, and that's going to be the goal from this point on. Moving into postseason, we're going to want to have those complete performances together."
Sophomore Hannah Scharf
On the season high team score
"Obviously with UofA being our rival school, we really wanted to take them down. Last time we got a 197.000, we had a lower beam score. So I think once we realized the scores that we were getting on beam were good, and then moving into the floor, we really just kind of used that energy from there to really zone in. So overall, we were feeling really excited throughout the day and our energy was up a lot."
Gym Devils score a 49.350 on beam, the highest beam score ASU has earned since 2009? pic.twitter.com/PIAAWjcHzZ
— Sun Devil Gymnastics (@SunDevilGym) February 24, 2021
Freshman Emily White
On her strong performance
"Today was a really great day for me. And I just feel like today it kind of all clicked, just doing what I know how to do in practice and doing it out on the floor when the pressure is on. And that was a really great feeling and I feel like this will definitely build my confidence going forward in practices and future competitions."
On the season high team score
"Yeah, it's definitely a really huge confidence booster for us. It wasn't anything like we were doing anything different out on the floor, we were just doing what we do in practice everyday. So I feel like today, we went out and we just had a little bit of a stronger beam rotation, and we just had a little bit more confidence building off that last 197.000. And I feel like this will definitely help us later in the season as well."
9??.9??2??5??
— Sun Devil Gymnastics (@SunDevilGym) February 24, 2021
Emily White comes up HUGE for the Gym Devils and scores a career high! pic.twitter.com/CNrELrdyaj
Final Results
- Arizona State, 197.450
- Arizona, 194.750
The Gym Devils continued their strong performance on vault, scoring above a 49.000 for the third meet in a row. Freshman Smith led the way, scoring a 9.900 to win the event title. Scharf and Leonard-Baker both added scores of 9.875. Jada Mangahas contributed 9.850 to match her personal best. Jaslow made her collegiate debut, earning a 9.800.
9??.9??0??0?? for Anaya Smith! ??#GymDevils pic.twitter.com/XgsBhzOxXL
— Sun Devil Gymnastics (@SunDevilGym) February 24, 2021
Rotation Two: Bars, 49.400
The bars squad posted their highest score of the season with a 49.400, three Gym Devils scoring a 9.900 or better. White set a new career high with a 9.925 and Clark tied her career best with a 9.900. Reeves and Leonard-Barker both scored season-highs with a 9.825 and 9.900 respectively. Scharf also added a solid 9.850, continuing her streak of not scoring below a 9.825 this season.
A THIRD score of 9??.9??0??0?? or better on bars!!
— Sun Devil Gymnastics (@SunDevilGym) February 24, 2021
CLB anchors the Gym Devils with a 9.900! pic.twitter.com/UhV4IMxYqO
Rotation Three: Beam, 49.350
The beam total was the highest for ASU since 2009, with all scores that counted being a 9.850 or better. White and Thompson set new career-highs scoring a 9.900 and 9.875, respectively. Scharf contributed a 9.875. Gutierrez and Reeves tied their career bests with a score of 9.850.
Have yourself a day Emily White!!
— Sun Devil Gymnastics (@SunDevilGym) February 24, 2021
She scored a career-high 9??.9??0??0?? on beam! pic.twitter.com/yQgTRmXa6b
Rotation Four: Floor, 49.375
This is the fourth week in a row surpassing 49.000 on floor for ASU. Scharf scored a new career-high with a 9.950, which is the best floor score by a Sun Devil this season. Leonard-Baker tied her season high with a 9.900. Clark and Mangahas both contributed scores of 9.850.
Up Next
Arizona State will travel to Seattle to face Washington on Sunday, February 28. The meet will be live at 3 p.m. MST on the Washington Live Stream.