TEMPE – Sun Devil Gymnastics set a new season high of 196.500 to secure the tri-meet victory on senior day at Desert Financial Arena on Sunday afternoon, beating Utah State (196.300) and Southeast Missouri State (193.750).
Trailing by .100 heading into the final rotation, senior Kimberly Smith (in the anchor spot) needed to hit her routine to win. She delivered by tying her career high of 9.925 to get the win.
Notable stats
- Arizona State (11-8, 2-3 Big 12) scored a season high 196.500 in the tri-meet win. ASU also set two new season high scores on bars and beam, carding a 49.150 and 49.200, respectively.
- Head coach Jay Santos hit 100 career wins after the two wins today. Prior to his time at ASU, he was the head coach at Eastern Michigan for two years. His win total at Arizona State is now at 74.
- On senior day, Kimberly Smith showed out, winning three event titles. She took home the all-around with a 39.350. She also won on bars (9.850) and floor (9.925). Her floor score was her fourth score this year of 9.900 or better.
- Junior Reese Grolla had a strong outing today. She scored a 9.900 on beam to win that event title, which is not only a season high for her but also is the highest score by a Gym Devil on beam this season. She also added a 9.850 on bars to tie for that even title, her sixth score of 9.800 or better on that event this season.
- The vault duo of juniors Lilia Purler and Halle Gregoire led the team on that event with 9.825s, tying for the vault title. They each have scored at least a 9.800 in three of the last four meets.
- Three freshmen earned new career highs today. Delanie Kelly earned a 9.850 on bars (tied for the event title), Safia El Mammann carded a 9.850 on beam and Adele Ossi notched a 9.800 on beam.
- Senior Isabella Kowan notched a career high on bars, scoring a 9.775.
- The five seniors were honored following the meet: student manager Nicole Dementyev, Isabell Kowan, Kayla Lee, Caroline Lichtman and Kimberly Smith.
Final results
- Arizona State, 196.500
- Utah State, 196.300
- SEMO, 193.750
Rotation one: vault, 48.925
The Sun Devils started off slow to kick off the meet, with the first three scores not reaching 9.800. Purler stepped up and delivered a 9.825 to give Arizona State some momentum. Gregoire rounded out the final score with a 9.825.
Rotation two: bars, 49.150
ASU found its rhythm on bars, with four Sun Devils carding a 9.825 or higher. Grolla opened up the rotation and found her dismount for a 9.850. Kelly followed that up with a 9.850 of her own. Kylee Bromley and Smith backed that up with a 9.825 and 9.850, respectively. Their collective score of 49.150 is their highest bar score this season thus far.
Rotation three: beam, 49.200
The Sun Devils set another season high, scoring a 49.100 on beam. Grolla started things off and set a season high, carding a 9.900. Bromley and Ossi added solid scores of 9.825 and 9.800, respectively. Smith closed things out for Arizona State, scoring a 9.850. A collective score of 49.200 on beam marks their season high thus far.
Rotation four: floor, 49.225
ASU turned it up a notch on floor and recorded a 49.225, highlighted by Smith’s 9.925. The senior closed out the rotations with a stellar performance, tying her season high on the year. Gregoire and Kelly each found their way to a 9.850, aided by a 9.825 performance from Bromley to close out the meet.
Up next
The Big 12 Championships are on Saturday, March 21, at West Valley City, Utah at the Maverik Center. Official sessions will be announced tomorrow, March 16. Sessions are based on the team NQS.
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Quotes
Head Coach Jay Santos
Opening statement
“It's always great to get a win on senior night and send them out the right way. Without going through the whole meet, I was pretty happy with the whole thing. I think it’s safe to say this was the most complete meet we've had this year. It's always nice to do it at home, do it on senior night. I’m really happy for the seniors and everything they've contributed. Pretty positive day in my opinion.”
On setting a season high on bars and beam and what that does to the confidence level:
“Hopefully it just keeps building. In the last month, I feel like we've really been putting in a lot of work and then some of the competitions haven't quite shown everything. So it's nice to kind of see it finally come together a little bit stronger because they have been doing a good job in the gym. They've been making corrections, they've been making changes. Whether it's performance, whether it's this, whether it's that, it just hasn't come all together all at once. So nice to kind of see it all come together in one meet and put it together. Hopefully leading into the conference meet, I hope that's going to put them on a high and make them think ‘we can do this, it's possible.’ We've been working at it all year long, finally coming together right in front of conference championships. So, hopefully they just take that and run with it.”
On his 100th career win as a head coach as Arizona State:
“It's great. Obviously it means I've had some longevity and had some success. There's a whole lot of people, athletes, staff, everything involved in that. There’s assistant coaches that go into that too. I'll probably process it a little bit more afterwards, but I think it just shows success over time is what this program has had. And I'm pretty proud of that.”
Senior Kimberly Smith
On securing a win on senior night:
“It's an amazing feeling honestly. The whole time us and Utah State were neck and neck, so going into the floor, I knew we were going to have to put up a fight, but also just do the gymnastics that we do in the gym every day, and we definitely did that. It showed on our floor and it was such an amazing feeling ending that floor routine and hearing the arena cheer. I don't even know how to describe it honestly, and obviously the win feels great. We're back at home after a lot of meets on the road, so it was a great feeling.”
On her favorite memory as a Sun Devil:
“I have a couple, the two that come to mind first, my sophomore year when we beat Utah here. I just remember after Hannah's (Scharf) floor routine, we were all on the floor jumping up and down and going crazy, that was an amazing feeling. Also sophomore year of regionals day one when we beat UCLA and made it onto the Sweet 16. That was also such a cool feeling just because we didn't know until we saw it up on the board and we just went crazy. The videos are so funny of us like getting hype, but those are the two that stand out the most to me.”
Junior Reese Grolla
On her 9.900 beam performance:
“We work so hard in the gym and you go out there every weekend and you try to piece it together and I've done it so much that I was just thinking I'm just going to do normal. (assistant coach) James (Williams) wrote on my hand, ‘Just be RG,’ and so I had that mentality going in and didn't stress, didn't do something that I shouldn't have, and it's a great feeling after.”
On her mindset heading into the Big 12 Championship:
“Jay always says it's just gymnastics, and that's what we plan to do is just do our gymnastics that we know exactly how to do and what we do in the gym every single day."