Monday, February 23, 1998
UCLA overcomes fatigue, manages to pull out win
GYMNASTICS Score lowest of recent tournaments, but is enough to
scrape out victory over tough competitors
By Christie DeBeau
Daily Bruin Contributor
While the scores were down for the UCLA women’s gymnastics team
at the Bruin Classic on Sunday, the team’s performanc was still
strong enough to beat the tough competition from Pennsylvania
State, California State University, Fullerton and Oregon State.
Fifth-ranked UCLA (11-1) placed first in the meet with a team
score of 194.550, which was high enough to beat 11th-ranked Oregon
State (192.550), seventh-ranked Penn State (190.800) and Fullerton
(189.275). The Bruins’ score at the Classic is not their lowest of
the season, but is a step down from their last two meets where they
scored above a 195.
The team started off strong with their first event, vault, but
were unable to perform at the same high level throughout every
rotation. On vault, UCLA placed first and received a score that
will improve their ranking.
"I feel the meet was a strong one because they worked through
it," UCLA head coach Valorie Kondos said. "They were flat tonight,
and the energy was not there to carry them through the next event.
You could tell that they were exhausted because they started off so
strong on vault. Usually if you start off good on an event the
momentum builds, but the fact that the momentum started dying shows
they were tired.
"However this is what is supposed to happen. With the science of
deterioration you are supposed to have highs and lows. We have had
two very good meets, the last two ones, and so I was anticipating a
down. As long as they were able to work through it and come out as
healthy as they came in, that is my main priority," said
Kondos.
In all-around competition the Bruins took the top three places
with Lena Degteva in first, followed by Heidi Moneymaker and Stella
Umeh.
Sunday’s meet was the first time that sophomore Degteva had
placed first in all-around competition since January of her
freshman year.
"Lena did a great job," Kondos said. "Before she went up on
every event, one of her teammates had a mishap of some sort and I
would go up to her and say ‘come on Lena, you have got to bring the
team together and it is up to you to get this team on fire now.’ I
think that she felt the responsibility of that and really rose to
the occasion."
The meet was also important for junior Lisa Hiley, who placed
second in the meet. This is Hiley’s best placement in her career on
any event.
"I am happy about my performance," Hiley said. "I like the
vault. I am doing right now a lot better. I can be more aggressive
on it."
"The fact that Lisa was able to compete her vault as well as she
did was amazing," Kondos said. "That is a very difficult vault and
it was more difficult than anyone’s on the team or anyone’s in here
tonight and she does it phenomenally. This is from a walk-on
athlete that just started learning it about two months ago, so
today was a huge success."