Gym Devils head to Pac-12 Championships


Coming off back-to-back season-high scores, the Arizona State women’s gymnastics team begins postseason competition at the Pac-12 Championships, March 16, in Corvallis, Ore.


The Sun Devils are the seventh seeded team at the Pac-12 Championships and will compete in the first session with Arizona, Washington and California, broadcast live on the Pac-12 Network at 1:30 p.m. PT. In a random draw by the coaches, Arizona State will start the rotation on beam and continue in Olympic order to floor, vault and then finish on bars. 


In the final home meet of the season, Arizona State put on one of its best performances in five years. The Gym Devils broke the 196 mark for the first time since 2009 and scored their highest team total since falling to Oregon State with a score of 196.150 in 2008.


Aside from the score, one of the marquee moments of the meet was the return of one of ASU’s top gymnasts from the 2012 season junior Sammie Seaman. The junior had been sidelined with a partial ligament tear in her foot and had not competed for Arizona State all season. Returning to full practice a week before the meet and in her first vault of the 2013 season, Seaman scored a 9.850, just shy of her career high of 9.875.


The previous week the Sun Devils scored a then season-high of 195.675 at Denver, propelled by a season-best 49.275 team score on floor with sophomore Morgan Steigerwalt scoring a career-best 9.900 in the event.   


With two healthy upperclassmen able to compete for most of the season, Arizona State has relied heavily on the strength and talent of its freshman and sophomore classes. Over the course of the season, the Sun Devils have competed an average of 20.9 underclassmen in their line-ups, with both Utah and Denver seeing 22 underclassmen compete.