Arizona GymCats fight back to advance to regional final

In sports, it’s not always about being perfect. Sometimes it’s about fight. That’s as true in gymnastics as any other sport.

The Arizona GymCats showed that fight as they upset No. 10 Georgia to take second place in the regional semifinals on Friday afternoon in Seattle. Finishing in the top two qualified them to advance to the regional finals on Sunday.

“We left a lot out there, but we stayed up,” said Arizona head coach John Court. “We stayed the course. We kept grinding…We had bends. We didn’t have breaks.”

No. 7 Missouri won the session with a 197.650. No. 21 Arizona earned a 196.250 to take the final qualification spot. No. 10 Georgia got a 196.175. No. 26 Arizona State finished fourth with a 196.050.

In addition to upsetting Georgia and moving on to the regional finals, Arizona got another notch in the in-state rivalry. The GymCats defeated the Sun Devils for the third time this season.

“ASU has had our number for a bunch of years,” Court said. “I’m gonna obviously enjoy all of it.”

Arizona had to come back from last place following the first rotation due to an unfortunate performance on the uneven bars. While it didn’t go the way the team might have wanted, it was the first demonstration of their will to win.

Senior Emily Mueller started things off on a high note with a 9.850 but things immediately went sideways. Aubrey Krohnfeldt fell on her Maloney, a transition from the low bar to the high bar that involves a release.

Krohnfeldt’s 9.250 was tough, but the other three teams weren’t exactly crushing it through the first two competitors. As long as the GymCats could get good scores from the remaining four competitors, it would be fine.

That didn’t happen. Things looked really bleak when sophomore Sophie Derr followed Krohnfeldt with a serious error of her own. Derr didn’t make her transition to the high bar but she didn’t fall, either. She improvised, kept the routine moving, and eventually made the transition. The score was a fairly low 9.625, but Derr’s fight to stay on the bar made it usable.

“I called her over after bars,” Court said. “I said, I know it wasn’t what you wanted, but I said, you didn’t come off, and you didn’t quit. And I said, it’s going to be the difference. And it was.”

Abigayle Martin, Alysen Fears, and Elena Deets did their parts with good scores to finish the rotation, but Arizona had missed a prime opportunity to start strong.

“Certainly, it wasn’t the start we wanted on bars,” Court said. “We had some really, really good quality routines. They didn’t quit, and we salvaged the score, and we just tried to build from there.”

Before the team left for Seattle, Court said that he felt starting on their two strongest events would help them establish themselves. By the time they got to vault at the end, he hoped the judges would have loosened up with the scores. While it may not be optimal or fair, it’s sometimes true that judges are harsher early in a meet. They didn’t take advantage of that opportunity on bars.

The second opportunity to put their best foot forward came in the second rotation. Balance beam has been a high point for Arizona in recent years. This year was no exception. The GymCats came in ranked 20th, their best ranking in the four events.

It was even more promising because the beam judges appeared willing to give big scores right from the start. ASU started on the event and earned a 49.225. The Devils only had one score below 9.800. It was the result of a fall. Their high score was Emily White’s 9.900.

The 9.825 that Fears scored to lead off the rotation for Arizona supported the expectation of big scores on the event, but the team started to falter later in the rotation.

Mueller had some bobbles and got a 9.725. It was a usable score, but Arizona needed more to put itself in a good position. Things got worse when fifth-year specialist Deets fell. She has scored as high as a 9.925 on the event, so her 9.200 was a big blow.

Martin showed her skill and mental toughness by following Deets’ fall with a beautiful routine that scored a 9.900. It gave Arizona its first score above 49.

Meanwhile, ASU was having difficulties on floor exercise. They scored a 48.950. The Sun Devils still had a lead of 0.175 over Arizona, but the GymCats were in a better position to salvage a rivalry win even if they didn’t advance to the final 16.

Things got really interesting during the third rotation. While floor exercise is Arizona’s lowest-ranked event, the GymCats have put up bigger scores on it than on vault this season. They couldn’t rely on a lineup of vaults with 9.95 start values to be the difference.

They needed to make a move on floor—and even that was going to be a steep hill to climb. Missouri was basically out of reach, but the second spot was there if they could do enough. That still left two teams between them and a spot in the regional finals.

Georgia was one of those teams. It was headed to beam where it came in ranked seventh in the country.

The Bulldogs didn’t live up to that billing. While they got two scores of 9.900, the scores of 9.100, 9.300, 9.500, and 9.750 had bigger impacts. Georgia had earned a 48.350 on its best event. It was the lowest score by any team on any event.

ASU didn’t do much better on vault. The Devils were able to drop a 9.525 but didn’t have a score above 9.800. The result was another sub-48 score in the rotation.

Meanwhile, Arizona was on its lowest-ranked event. The GymCats came in ranked 30th on floor exercise, although they have had some high scores on the event this season. Floor exercise tends to be a high-scoring event, so the ranking doesn’t tell the whole story.

The GymCats proved it. They were able to drop a 9.775. The lowest scores they kept were a pair of 9.825s. The high was a 9.900 from Emma Strom.

Arizona was still in a shaky position. It had a lead of .500 over Georgia and .350 over ASU. It was headed to vault to perform a string of vaults with 9.95 start values. The lack of 10.0 start values is one reason the GymCats are ranked No. 26 on vault.

The Bulldogs would be on floor, where they are ranked No. 14. The Sun Devils would be on bars. They’re ranked No. 21 there.

Vault proceeds quicker than the other events, so Arizona was done before the other teams. The GymCats finished with a 48.975 and had to wait.

ASU and Georgia each had one competitor to go. ASU couldn’t reach the GymCats, so Arizona would not finish fourth. Would the GymCats maintain their second-place position, though.

After freshman Jessa Janicke scored a 9.825 to finish vault for Arizona, Georgia was in a very difficult position. Anchor Lily Smith had to score a 10.0 just to tie the GymCats. Then, it would come down to the tiebreaker, which means counting all 24 scores.

Smith performed a beautiful routine. It just wasn’t perfect. The score came up as a 9.925. The tiebreaker wasn’t necessary.

“It was not a pipe dream,” Court said. “They felt that we could advance. Wasn’t the way we expected to advance, but the back half of that meet, that was championship level.”

Arizona advances to the regional final for the first time under the new postseason format. It will finish no worse than fourth in the region. The last time the GymCats finished fourth or better in a regional was under the old format in 2016.

The regional final will be held at 5 p.m. MST on Sunday, Apr. 6. It will stream on ESPN+.

Lead photo courtesy of Arizona Athletics