TUCSON, Ariz. — The Arizona GymCats will travel north up I-10 to compete against the No. 17 Arizona State Gym Devils this Wednesday, Feb. 24. The meet is scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m. MST with a free live stream available to watch.
This will be the first of two meetings between the two programs, who will match up again in Tempe on Saturday, March 6. Wednesday's meet was scheduled to replace the GymCats postponed meet at Oregon State.
Arizona's most recent competition came on Saturday in a home meet against Washington. The GymCats mounted a furious rally in the fourth and final rotation, scoring a 49.050 on floor, but fell just shy of the GymDawgs with a final score of 193.975.
Arizona State has not competed since Feb. 14, when they fell on the road to California with a final score of 196.650. The Gym Devils rank among the Top 25 programs in the country in all four events, placing No. 11 on bars, No. 15 on vault, No. 21 on beam, and one spot ahead of Arizona at No. 23 on floor.
A complete preview of Wednesday's meet can be found below.
Arizona Tentative Lineups
NEXT UP: The GymCats head to Tempe for a recently-scheduled meet against Arizona State. This will be the first of two road meets against the Gym Devils this season. This will be Arizona's first road meet at Arizona State since Feb. 24, 2018. Wednesday's meet was scheduled to replace the GymCats canceled meet at Oregon State originally scheduled for Feb. 13 in Corvallis.
FLOOR IT: Arizona has excelled on floor this year and currently ranks No. 24 in the nation in the event with an average score of 49.013. The GymCats posted a 49.050 on floor against Washington on Saturday, their third 49+ of the year in the event. 14 of Arizona's 22 floor routines have scored at or above 9.8 this season.
YOUTH MOVEMENT: The GymCats roster is loaded with young talent in 2021, with 15-of-19 players being freshmen or sophomores. Arizona has relied havily on these underclassmen in 2021, using them for 78-of-96 routines thus far.
COACHING STAFF: The 2021 Wildcats are led by third-year head coach
John Court, third-year assistant coach
Taylor Spears, and first-year assistant coach
Peter Jansson. Following decades of coaching across multiple levels of gymnastics, former Wildcats assistant coach of five years,
David McCreary, announced his retirement in early January.
STATE 48: The Wildcats 2021 roster features six student-athletes from the state of Arizona, including three local products hailing from Tucson: freshman
Madison Courney, junior
MacKinzie Kane, and freshman
Halli Mayberry. The six Arizonans represent nearly a third of the Wildcats roster.
G-PAC: In January, a group of Pac-12 gymnasts announced the formation of G-PAC, or "Gymnasts for Peace, Action, and Change." G-PAC facilitates an environment where diversity and inclusion is both welcomed and encouraged. The Wildcats are represented on the student-athlete driven organization by sophomore
Sirena Linton. For G-PAC's full mission statement, visit ArizonaWildcats.com.
