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LOS ANGELES -- What looked to be one very dark cloud of a weekend ended up having a tremendous silver lining for the ASU gymnastics team.
While the Sun Devils proved that, as a program, they were not quite ready to defeat the nation's elite squads, sophomore Ashley Kelly proved she could contend with all comers.
On Saturday, Kelly outscored the NCAA's top 11 gymnasts to win an individual national title on the balance beam event at Pauley Pavilion.
"Its amazing," Kelly said, "Everyone has been asking me, 'what does it feel like?' It really hasn't sunk in yet. I never really once thought I would win a national title. You just think about people who do that, and I couldn't picture myself as one of them."
Kelly's victory provided a sweet ending to an otherwise sour weekend for the ASU gymnasts, who ended up in sixth and last place in the night session of the NCAA Championship preliminaries on Thursday with a score of 196.325.
The top three teams in each of the two six-team sessions advanced to the Super Six on Friday night. Overall, ASU finished ninth as a team out of the 12 squads who competed. Host UCLA won the session with a score of 197.675, and went on to capture the national championship.
The top four gymnasts from each event and each session on Thursday advanced to the individual championships. Kelly called her winning routine, "definitely the best I've done under that kind of pressure.
"I really finished my positions fast and quick and everything was really solid," Kelly said. "I didn't wobble once in the routine. After it was over I still couldn't believe what I had just done."
With her entire team screaming in the stands and senior Maggie Germaine and the coaching staff standing right by the beam, Kelly was able to earn a 9.95 on her routine. The mark blew away the competition, including Michigan's Elise Ray, a former gymnast for team USA in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Ray tied for third with a 9.9.
"Ashley's aerial walkover was spectacular and her series was very nice," ASU coach John Spini said. "She crossed her legs a little bit on the dismount, but except for that, her routine was picture perfect. Ashley proved what we already knew, she is one of the nation's elite."
Kelly is the ninth Sun Devil to win a national title, and the fourth to win on the balance beam since Elizabeth Reid in 1997.
Kelly, not coincidentally, supplied the team's few dynamic performances on Thursday as she tied for fourth place out of 47 competitors in the all-around with a score of 39.575.
Kelly was later named a first team All-American for her routine on the balance beam (9.9) and in the all-around, as well as a second team All-American for the floor (9.9) and vault (9.9). She just missed a chance to compete for an individual championship on both the vault and floor by just one placing as she finished fifth in each.
By and large, the Sun Devils were not totally disappointed by their performance despite finishing last, as they were not forced to count a fall. After the meet, ASU looked more like a team that was simply beaten by better competition than a team that just performed poorly, as the judging was noticeably tougher than anything they have come across at Wells Fargo Arena.
"This is the best of the best, the cream of the crop and when the competition is so tough, the scores have to be tougher as well," Germaine said. "We had a little trouble sticking landings on bars. Other than that, we just got little form deductions you honestly don't really know (what they were)."
The Sun Devils nearly placed themselves out of the competition after their first event of the meet with a lackluster performance on the bars. Kelly earned a 9.875 and freshman Cassandra Jusino received a 9.825, but ASU's other four gymnasts couldn't get above a 9.8 as all took steps on their dismounts.
Spini said the stumbles on the bars likely cost his team up to five-tenths off its final score and possibly a bid to the Super Six.
The Sun Devils rebounded with one of their better beam routines of the season, as all six gymnasts stuck their landings, but the team's score did not improve much as it received a 48.925 in the event.
"I felt our beam scores could have been a little higher and some areas on bars should have been higher, but we just have to take what they give us," Kelly said. "[The judges] are really nitpicky. They'll get you for anything."
The Sun Devils then picked it up in their next event, the floor exercise, earning a 49.15. Germaine and junior Kari Muth enjoyed scores of 9.850 after solid performances.
Ironically, the team had its best score (49.3) in the vault, an event that has given them trouble throughout the season. Jusino scored a 9.875 while freshman April Boone and senior Carla DeMartini earned 9.85s.
"This is probably the hardest all-time session they've ever had with so many top teams," Spini said. "Would we have made it in the other session? Who knows? But this is our draw, and this is what we're going to live with."
Reach the reporter at christopher.drexel@asu.edu.
