No. 5 Red Rocks Set to Open Pac-12 Competition Versus Arizona State
University of Utah women’s gymnastics junior Sydney Soloski performs on the balance beam in the Deseret dual meet vs. BYU, Utah State, and Southern Utah University at the Maverik Center in Salt Lake City, Utah on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2020. (Photo by Kiffer Creveling | The Daily Utah Chronicle)
January 23, 2020
The No. 5 University of Utah Red Rocks gymnastics team (4-0, 0-0 Pac-12) will be back at home this week, opening up conference competition versus Arizona State (3-2, 0-0 Pac-12). Last season when the two teams met, the Red Rocks easily handled the Sun Devils 197.375-195.825 in the desert.
Scouting the No. 5 Red Rocks
Last Meet: 1st place at the Best of Utah meet with a 197.000
The Red Rocks fell to No. 5 this week after being on bye last week. Senior Kim Tessen was awarded the conference specialist of the week after her solid performance at the Best of Utah meet. This is the first time that Tessen has been honored by the conference.
In the Rankings
Utah is ranked in the Top 10 on all four events, the highest of which is the vault, where the Red Rocks come in at No. 5. On the beam, the team ranks No. 6, on floor No. 7 and the team is ranked No. 10 in the nation on the bars.
At the individual level, three Utes are ranked. Tessen ranks No. 6 on the bars, No. 12 on vault and No. 15 on the floor. Abby Paulson and Cristal Isa are tied for 14th in the nation on the beam.
Scouting Arizona State
Last Meet: Win over UC Davis 195.250-187.225
Last week, the Sun Devils scored a season-high versus UC Davis. The Sun Devils were led by freshman Juliette Boyer who took home the all-around title with a score of 39.125. Junior Cairo Leonard-Baker scored a 9.925 on the bars, which is the highest score on that event all season for the team.
Leonard-Baker qualified for the NCAA Championships as an individual last season for the second-straight year and was named a second-team All-American on bars as well.
ASU has gone up against some of the best teams in the nation this past season. Not only did they take on No. 1 Oklahoma, but they also faced off against No. 4 Denver and No. 14 Auburn. The Sun Devils still have to take on five more ranked opponents this season.
How to Watch
The meet will be available for fans to watch via a Utah live stream. The meet will also be broadcast over the airways of ESPN700. Mike Lageschulte will in charge of the play-by-play for both the radio as well as the live stream. He will be joined by Kyndal Pond as the color analyst. For the first time, the pair will be joined by former head coach Megan Marsden on the call.
This article has been updated with correct rankings for each event. The Utes are No. 10 on the bars.
Emma • Jan 24, 2020 at 9:12 am
Cool fact: Former Ute All-American Kristina Baskett is now an Arizona State assistant coach and will be back tonight. Heads up: If you haven’t finished “Game of Thrones,” do NOT read the SLTrib piece about it. SPOILER in the opening paragraph (unless they’ve FINALLY fixed it by now). Look for the cool short video about her at thesundevils-dot-com….