Gym Devils score season-high, historic year falls short of National Semifinals qualification

The highest score of the season. The highest postseason score in program history.

Yet in the end, Arizona State’s 197.600 wasn’t enough to move on from the Salt Lake Regional Final and advance to the National Semifinals.

Utah’s 197.925 and LSU’s 197.750 edged out the Sun Devils to earn the two spots from the regional. For perspective, Arizona State’s score would’ve been good enough to advance out of the Tuscaloosa Regional.

Jay and Jessica Santos’ squad put up a quite a performance. The team started on beam, the event that had the worst results for ASU on Friday. That wasn’t the case in the Regional Final. Gracie Reeves and Jasmine Gutierrez set career-highs with scores of 9.900.

Arizona State as a team earned a 49.450 result on beam, as it netted scores of at least 49.300 in all four events. Hannah Scharf finished her spectacular season scoring 39.500 all-around with 9.900 in beam, bars, floor and a 9.800 in vault.

Led by Cairo Leonard-Baker’s 9.950 as well as Sarah Clark’s 9.925 and Scharf’s 9.900, the Sun Devils scored a 49.525 on bars. That number was the highest score for a single event in since 2006.

Vault specialist Anaya Smith received another 9.900 score, which was a team-high in the session.

Not qualifying for the semifinals will be disappointing in the moment. However, outside of losing Leonard-Baker — truly a big loss — nearly every single contributor should be back to compete next season. Saturday appears to be a stepping stone for something bigger in the future.