This article was originally published on January 21, 2023.
Arizona State wrestling and Arizona State gymnastics hosted Beauty and the Beast night, which saw wrestling and gymnastics happen at the same time at Desert Financial Arena. This event has happened before, but this was the first time since 2020 due to COVID-19.
The Sun Devils hosted Cal Poly for wrestling and Stanford for gymnastics.
ASU Wrestling came into the dual 2-3 on the dual season and on a three-match losing streak. Cal Poly Wrestling also came into the dual on a three-match losing streak as well, with a record of 4-5 coming into the dual.
The dual started at the light weights at 125 pounds. ASU started out hot, winning the first four matches of the dual with wins from Richard Figueroa 6-5, Michael McGee 14-7, Jesse Vasquez 7-3, and Kyle Parco winning by pin fall. The Sun Devils started out hot leading 15-0 after those four matches.
Those guys are battling everyday,” assistant coach Lee Pritts said. “When you put those guys together there gonna keep elevating each others wrestling IQ’s and their ability to win”
The ASU light weights have all gotten of to hot starts early and are looking to keep that success when postseason rolls around.
Moving to the 157 pound class, Cal Poly had their own match winning streak winning the next four matches from 157 to 184. Luka Wick at 157 won 6-0, Legen Lamar won 4-0 at 165, Brawley Lamar won 8-2 at 174, and at 184 Jared Priest picked up a pin fall. After that winning streak of matches Cal Poly and ASU were tied at 15 heading to the final three matches.
In the 197 pound class, Jonathon Fagen for ASU faced Kendall La Rosa for Cal Poly. Fagen started the match off hot with a 5-0 lead going into the final period. Fagen held on and gave the Sun Devils a three point lead with one match remaining.
The match came down to the heavyweights and ASU sent out David Palosika against Cal Poly’s Trevor Tinker. Tinker came out fast for Cal Poly and stayed hot the whole match, picking up the major decision win 10-2 for an extra bonus point and winning the dual for Cal Poly 19-18.
The Sun Devils’ dual losing streak now drops to four, and this conference loss for the Devils is their first conference dual loss since the 2018-19 season where they lost to Stanford 21-15. ASU has a quick turnaround for their next dual where they wrestle at Stanford on Sunday, January 22nd.
“It’s a team effort. We have to protect bonus points,” Pritts said. “At 33 we lost a bonus point in the last three seconds, we have to protect bonus points, and at heavyweight, if we protect bonus points and we were tied, we win the dual on criteria.”
The Sun Devils lost the bonus point battle and it ended up costing them the dual by one point, where if the Devils would’ve tied, ASU would’ve won on criteria based on points.
ASU gymnastics, meanwhile, started on the vault and Stanford started at the bars. Stanford put up 49.075 points on the bars and the Sun Devils put up 48.875 on the vault. The two teams switched and the Sun Devils on the bars picked up 49.200 points, while Stanford picked up 48.850 on the vault.
After the first two events, Stanford had 97.925 points and the Sun Devils had 98.075. The final two events were beam and floor. Stanford scored 49.050 on the floor and 49.250 on the beam. The Sun Devils scored 49.025 on the beam and on the floor got 48.950.
The Sun Devils fell just shy overall as Stanford won the dual meet 196.225 to 196.050.
We have to be able to finish the meet a little bit stronger,” ASU gymnastics coach Jay Santos said. “We had the lead in the last event, we had to do our job on the floor.”
“I thought it was really cool to have both teams in the same room,” junior gymnast Jada Mangahas said. “It was really loud, it gave us more energy and we fed off their crowd and it was cool to have their crowd and our crowd.”
ASU gymnastics’ next meet is against rival University of Arizona. The two teams compete Saturday, January 28th.
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