Jan. 18, 2013
SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Led once again by stellar vaulting by sophomore Natasha Sundby and freshman Carissa Kraus and a clutch bar score by graduate student Kahoku Palafox, the Arizona State women’s gymnastics team (2-1, 0-0 Pac-12) scored 194.350 to finish in first place over Sacramento State and San Jose State in Sacramento, Calif., Friday night.
The Sun Devils had an event winner in every category they fielded a gymnast with Sundby and Palafox taking solo victories in vault and bars, respectively.
Sundby, competing in front of her hometown crowd wowed on both vault and floor, matching her career-high vault score from the previous week with a 9.875 on the event. Sundby also scored a near career-high score of 9.825 on floor while her family and friends held up a homemade TASHA sign in support of the sophomore.
The Sun Devils opened up the meet on beam scoring a season-high 48.775, as a team, and is currently ranked 19th in nation in the event. Five of the six ASU gymnasts recorded 9.725 or above with both freshman Risa Perez and sophomore Morgan Steigerwalt earning top scores of 9.775 in the event to take individual titles.
The meet title was in contention until the final event with Arizona State finishing on bars and Sacramento State taking the floor. Palafox, the seasoned bar veteran, scored a meet-high 9.875 on bars, just 25-hundreths of a point off her career high of 9.900 set in 2010. With scores from freshman Carissa Kraus of 9.725 and sophomore Brianna Gades of 9.750, the Sun Devils solidified the victory in Sacramento.
On vault, Kraus took second in the event with a career-high score of 9.825. Once again, the Sun Devils only fielded five gymnasts in the line-up.
Next up, the Gym Devils return home to Wells Fargo Arena to host No. 1 UCLA for Arizona State’s annual “Pink Meet” to benefit the Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer awareness, Friday at 7 p.m. PT. Fans who wear pink to the meet will receive $3 discounted admission and the meet is FREE for ASU students with their Sun Cards.