Thursday, February 25, 1999
Back-to-back competitions provide squad with warm-up
TOURNAMENT: Stars prepare for national, international events
By Steve Kim
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Featuring nationally renowned athletes, aspiring Olympians and
death-defying aerial stunts, two back-to-back gymnastic events will
be hosted by the UCLA men’s club.
The Bruin club team will bump heads and floormats against five
NCAA and club teams in the UCLA Invitational, which starts at 7
p.m. Thursday at the Wooden Center. Teams from Arizona, San Jose
State, BYU, Cal and UC Santa Barbara compete for the highest
overall team score, as well as the individual all-around title.
They will then follow up with the Peter Vidmar Invitational, a
three day event starting Friday consisting of international teams
from five countries.
No longer a NCAA team because of UCLA’s gender equity issues in
athletics, the Bruin club – now under UCLA Recreation – still
tumbles strong. With the support of alumni Olympians and coaches,
UCLA remains a respected name in men’s gymnastics.
The club currently trains nationally ranked gymnasts like Steve
McCain and Jim Foody, giving the team the competitive edge it needs
at the invitational. Alumnus and ’96 Olympian Chris Waller may step
in and help out the Bruins, the gymnasts say.
Foody recently returned from the U.S. Winter nationals in Las
Vegas with a sixth place finish. That put him on the national team,
which will enter international competition in Moscow three weeks
from now. Foody looks to warm up for Moscow tonight at the
invitational with a relaxed casual attitude.
"It’s a fun meet for me, really," Foody said. "I just got back
from a big meet and I have the Moscow meet in three weeks, so this
is a practice meet for me, to just get ready for that. I’m not
going into it to win but to practice and try new things."
McCain will compete at the Vidmar Invitational but because of
another obligation, he will miss the UCLA Invitational. The team
score may suffer as a result.
"As a team it’s going to be tough because we don’t have everyone
doing every event but individually some of the guys, like Jim, will
do pretty well," coach Doug Macey said.
The Vidmar Invitational will bring in teams from countries like
Finland, Australia and Sweden, as well as the United States. Aside
from competitions, the weekend event will also have
exhibitions.
The competitive field will be deep, Macey predicts.
"The guys from the other countries are fairly good," he said.
"They’re training to go to the Olympics. And we have Jim and Steve.
There’s another guy from the national team who’ll be representing
BYU. There’ll be a bunch of good gymnasts on Saturday night."
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