Senior Cairo Leonard-Baker scored her season high 9.900 on the uneven bars Wednesday afternoon. (Photo by Marlee Smith/Cronkite News)
Leonard-Baker closed the meet against Arizona with a 9.900. (Photo by Marlee Smith/Cronkite News)
Arizona State sophomore Hannah Scharf posted the highest score of the meet and a new career-high with a 9.950 on floor. (Photo by Marlee Smith/Cronkite News)
Scharf also added an 8.750 on the beam in the meet at Desert Financial Arena. (Photo by Marlee Smith/Cronkite News)
Sophomore Gracie Reeves scored her season-high of 9.825, earning the applause of teammates. (Photo by Marlee Smith/Cronkite News)
Freshman Emily White won the event tile for beam and set a new career high of 9.900. (Photo by Marlee Smith/Cronkite News)
White was thrilled with her marks on the beam as the Sun Devils posted scores that will help their postseason goals. (Photo by Marlee Smith/Cronkite News)
The No. 17 Sun Devils scored a season-high 197.450 against Arizona in the midday Territorial Cup matchup. (Photo by Marlee Smith/Cronkite News)
Junior Jazmine Gutierrez tied her career-high of 9.850 in her 2021 debut on beam. (Photo by Marlee Smith/Cronkite News)
Junior beam specialist Megan Thompson opened the beam rotation with a career-high mark of 9.875. (Photo by Marlee Smith/Cronkite News)
TEMPE – The Arizona State gymnastics team continues to enhance its resume for the postseason.
The No. 17 Sun Devils scored a season-high 197.450 against Arizona in a midday Territorial Cup matchup at Desert Financial Arena. Wednesday’s score topped the previous season-high of 197.150 against No. 3 Utah and tied the ninth-highest score in program history from 2003.
“We all know it means a little bit more,” ASU coach Jay Santos said. “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.”
High scores are to the Sun Devils’ benefit as it will help their postseason seeding and location.
ASU started out strong with freshman vault specialist Anaya Smith’s 9.900. Sophomore Hannah Scharf and senior Cairo Leonard-Baker both scored 9.875. Sophomore Jordyn Jaslow made her collegiate debut after an early injury and scored 9.800. The team came out on top and stayed above 49.000 for the third meet in a row.
Freshman Emily White set a career record of 9.925 and won the event title for the uneven bars. Emily White also captured the balance beam with a 9.900, while Hannah Scharf won floor and posted the highest score of the meet with a career-high 9.950.
The Wildcats will return to Desert Financial Arena on March 6. Arizona stepped in this week for Stanford after the Cardinal canceled their second meet due to training restrictions. Stanford has yet to compete in the 2021 season.
ASU travels to Washington to compete against the Huskies Sunday.