Gymnastics

This is Sun Devil Gymnastics

Sun Devil gymnastics began in 1976 and has a strong tradition of postseason success. ASU has been to the NCAA Championships 24 times and to regionals 40 times. There has been a lot of individual success within the program. The Gym Devils have had nine individual champions and 85 total All-America honors.

Facilities

Dedicated in 2006, the John Spini Gymnastics Center is a state-of-the-art practice facility designed to foster the continued pursuit of excellence by the Sun Devil women’s team. Located in the northeast corner of the Verde Dickey Athletic Complex, the facility provides an enhanced atmosphere for Sun Devil student-athletes and coaches and gives gymnasts a tremendous advantage in their athletic training. The center includes locker rooms, showers and sports medicine facilities. The training facility is named in honor of former coach Arizona State women's gymnastics head coach John Spini, who was with the program from 1981 to 2014.

Academics

The academic support at Arizona State is unparalleled in its support of student athlete development. Each sport is assigned an Academic Coach who creates the individualized academic support plans for students, assists with major selection, course planning and schedule building and monitoring progress towards degree in alignment with ASU, Pac-12 and NCAA requirements.

The Sun Devil Office of Student Athlete Development Offers:

Academic Support Programming
Structured Study Hall- 4hrs of objective-based study hall a week, scheduled by team
Graduation Risk Overview- incoming and returning academic assessment program
Identify students who may struggle during the semester
Create individualized educational support plans
Tutoring- we provide subject specific tutoring to student athletes as needed
Mentoring- mentors provide academic support in the areas of organizational skills, time management and study skills, as well as tutoring
Study Halls- daily study programs for student athletes
Computer lab- over 52 computers and 40 laptops for student athlete use
Grade monitoring- grade check all freshman and upperclassman determined by academic performance
Referral to ASU academic support resources- ASU has an extensive student success centers, providing tutoring seven days a week, with centers located in five residential halls, libraries and other departments across campus

Winning Tradition

Out of the 80-plus gymnastics teams in the NCAA, only six teams have won the NCAA Gymnastics team title. Additionally, four more teams have finished as National Runner-Ups. The Sun Devils have finished as the NCAA second-place team four times (1983, 1985, 1986, 1997).

6 – Sun Devil Individual NCAA Champions
8 - Number of top-five finishes for ASU at the NCAA Championships.
10 – Total individual NCAA titles accumulated by the Sun Devils.
10.0 - Score granted to 16 different ASU gymnasts, for a combined 38 perfect scores.
12 - Number of perfect 10.0 scores recorded by the 2004 Sun Devils.
29 - Number of times out of 36 years that ASU has been represented at the NCAA Championships. The Sun Devils have qualified as an entire team 20 times.
23 - Number of times ASU has finished among the nation’s top-10 teams (18 of those since 1982, the first year of the NCAA Championships).
29 - Number of Sun Devil gymnasts to earn All-America honors.
85 - Number of All-America honors earned by Sun Devil gymnasts.
198.450 - School record team score set March 5, 2004 versus Eastern Michigan at Desert Financial Arena.

Coaching Staff

Jay Santos - Head Coach

In his fourth season as the head coach in 2020, Jay Santos helped a young team, with seven making their collegiate debuts, reach new heights. They finished with a winning record (7-6-1) for the second-straight season, including a win over No. 10 Cal. Due to COVID-19 concerns, the season was cut short the week before the Pac-12 Championship, meaning NCAA regionals did not happen as well. However, the team went out on a high note, finishing ranked No. 21 on Road to Nationals, the highest ranking of the year. The four meets before the cancellations were all 196.000s or better, with a total of five team scores surpassing that number in 2020. In the last seven meets, the Gym Devils scored a 49.000+ on vault, finishing the season ranked No. 17 in the nation in that event. They also finished No. 17 on bars with six individual scores of 9.900 or better earned that season, five coming from Cairo Leonard-Baker. Santos led the Gym Devils to another successful season in 2019, the first since 2014 to have a winning record (11-10) in the regular season. The team was ranked in the top-25 on Road to Nationals all year and earned four wins over top-25 teams throughout the season. They scored a 196.000 or better six times and had a team RQS (Regional Qualifying Score) of 196.320 at the end of the year. The season-high score of 196.625 came at home against Oregon State, which was the 25th highest team total in program history. There were 25 scores of 9.900 or above throughout the year. To start off the postseason, the Sun Devils took fifth at the Pac-12 Gymnastics Championships, the best team finish since 2006. The team qualified for their second-straight trip to NCAA Regionals. Cairo Leonard-Baker qualified for nationals as an individual on bars, earning Second Team All-America honors. Boasting arguably one of the most substantial turnarounds in recent collegiate gymnastics history, Santos' squad improved 18 spots from their 2017 national finish of 41, capping the 2018 season ranked at No. 23 nationally (highest finish since 2007). Ranking in the top-20 of the national standings for 12 consecutive weeks, Arizona State made its first team NCAA regional appearance since 2014 while sending individual all-around qualifier Cairo Leonard-Baker to nationals. Courtesy of his efforts at the helm of the program, Santos was named the 2018 Pac-12 Coach of the Year. Under the tutelage of Santos, the Maroon and Gold jumped nearly a point and half in their season finale RQS tally, improving from 195.145 in 2017 to 196.545 this season. Most notably, the team eclipsed the 49.000+ mark in 33 event rotations, after only having done so four times in 2017. The Gym Devils knocked off four ranked opponents on the season — No. 14 Auburn, No. 20 Iowa, No. 14 West Virginia, and No. 20 Stanford — marking the first time since 2006 that the squad has accomplished the feat, while accumulating 13 team wins. In his first season as head coach in 2017, Santos quickly elevated the program, as the Gym Devils hit a season high team score in five of six consecutive meets including a season high 195.700 at Arizona. The Gym Devils scored 195 in four separate meets, the first time that has happened since the 2014 season. The team showed significant improvement on bars and beam from the 2016 season. Their bars regional qualifying score increased from a 48.24 in 2016 to a 48.8 in 2017 while beam improved from 48.57 to 48.93. The Gym Devils finished the season ranked 29th in the country on beam. The Gym Devils also bested then-No. 23 Arizona for the program's first Pac-12 win since 2014 and the coveted Territorial Cup series point. At the Pac-12 Championship, the Gym Devils completed the season with a 195.600, their second highest team score of the season, plus a season-high 49.275 on beam in the final rotation, the highest team beam score since March 13, 2009. It was the second highest team total for the program at a championship meet since 2004 when they scored a 196.775. Vice President for University Athletics and Athletics Director Ray Anderson named Jay Santos the head women’s gymnastics coach on May 27, 2016. Santos’ wife, Jessica Santos, serves as the Sun Devil Gymnastics program’s associate head coach. They have two sons, Mason and Cooper.

Jessica Santos - Associate Head Coach

Since joining the team, Jessica Santos has helped bring Arizona State to new heights. In her fourth season with the program, Santos helped a young team, with seven making their collegiate debuts, reach new heights. They finished with a winning record (7-6-1) for the second-straight season, including a win over No. 10 Cal. Due to COVID-19 concerns, the season was cut short the week before the Pac-12 Championship, meaning NCAA regionals did not happen as well. However, the team went out on a high note, finishing ranked No. 21 on Road to Nationals, the highest ranking of the year. The four meets before the cancellations were all 196.000s or better, with a total of five team scores surpassing that number in 2020. In the last seven meets, the Gym Devils scored a 49.000+ on vault, finishing the season ranked No. 17 in the nation in that event. They also finished No. 17 on bars with six individual scores of 9.900 or better earned that season, five coming from Cairo Leonard-Baker. In 2019, the team earned the first winning record (11-10) in the regular season since 2014. The team was ranked in the top-25 on Road to Nationals all year and earned four wins over top-25 teams throughout the season. They scored a 196.000 or better six times and had a team RQS (Regional Qualifying Score) of 196.320 at the end of the year. The Sun Devils took fifth at the Pac-12 Gymnastics Championships, the best team finish since 2006. At NCAA Regionals, the team finished in seventh, but Leonard-Baker won the regional bar title with a 9.925, automatically qualifying her for nationals as an individual. At the NCAA Championships, she scored a 9.900, earning Second Team All-America honors in that event. She and her husband Jay quickly elevated the program in their first season in 2017. They had the best season since 2014, capping it off by scoring the best Pac-12 team total since 2004. In 2018, the team improved 18 spots from their 2017 national finish of 41, finishing the season at No. 23 nationally (highest finish since 2007). Ranking in the top-20 of the national standings for 12 consecutive weeks, Arizona State made its first team NCAA regional appearance since 2014 while sending individual all-around qualifier and regular season All-American Cairo Leonard-Baker to nationals. Santos was named associate head coach for Sun Devil Gymnastics on May 27, 2016. Santos joins husband Jay Santos, who was named head coach of the Sun Devil Gymnastics program, also on May 27, 2016. Jess and Jay Santos have two sons, Mason and Cooper.

Kristin White - Assistant Coach

Kristin White was named the new assistant coach for the Gym Devils on May 26, 2020. After two seasons as an assistant coach at Iowa State, White is moving to the desert. Her primary responsibilities with the Cyclones were balance beam and floor, including choreographing floor routines. During her two years at Iowa State, she helped the team finish ranked No. 20 both seasons. In 2020, the team ended the year ranked No. 16 on floor, moving up 23 spots from where they finished the previous year. On beam, the Cyclones finished at No. 24 on beam in 2020, improving nine spots from 2019’s No. 33 rank. Throughout the year, White helped the team to a 49.000 or better on floor in every meet but one, as well as six 49.000-pluses on beam. Additionally, she helped Iowa State to four ranked wins in 2020, including a victory in the dual meet against No. 11 Western Michigan. In White’s first season in 2019, she coached the team to a 49.000 or better on floor five times and on beam twice. White helped coach the beam lineup to a 49.150 against Oklahoma on March 11, which was tied for the fifth-highest team beam score in the last five years at Iowa State. She also helped the team advance to the NCAA regionals for the third year in a row, a streak which continued to four-straight appearances in 2020. Prior to her time at Iowa State, White spent five years working at her childhood club of Dynamo Gymnastics, a two-time Region III Program of the Year in 2015 and 2016. She worked as a Team Coach and Choreographer and was named the 2016 Oklahoma State Coach of the Year. White helped coach teams to state championships throughout her entire tenure at Dynamo, along with coaching Junior Olympic National Team members. Before her work at Dynamo, White spent a year as the Team Director and Coach at 10.0 Academy in Stow, Massachusetts. After graduating from Oklahoma in May 2010 with her Bachelor's Degree in Human Relations, White stayed in Norman, and joined the OU coaching staff as a graduate assistant. She graduated with her Master's Degree in Adult and Higher Education in 2012. As a student-athlete at Oklahoma, White helped lead Oklahoma to a trio of Big 12 team championships from 2008-10, and a second-place finish at the NCAA Championships in 2010. That season, White closed out her OU gymnastics career with a pair of All-America honors on balance beam and in floor exercise. Outside of competition, she was a three-time recipient of OU's Outstanding Community Service Award, spent three years as a member of Oklahoma's Student Athlete Advisory Committee and two years on OU's Athletics Council.