MARY HOLSCHER Sophomore Malia Jones
performs on the beam in a competition last week. UCLA’s next meet
will be for the NCAA Championship. WOMEN’S
GYMNASTICS NCAA Championships Today,
Friday-Saturday 10 a.m. Athens, GA
By Adam Karon
Daily Bruin Staff
The UCLA gymnastics team flips its way into Athens, Georgia
today looking to bring home its second straight NCAA title.
UCLA competes against Alabama, Florida, Michigan, Oklahoma, and
Oregon State in the first of two preliminary meets beginning today
at 1 p.m. Eastern Time. The second preliminary round, at 7 p.m. ET,
features host Georgia against Arizona State, Denver, Nebraska,
Stanford, and Utah. The top three teams from each round will meet
Friday in the “Super Six,” with the winner taking home
the 2001 national title.
The all-around champion and individual event finalists are
determined during the preliminary competition, with the top four
individual scorers advancing to Saturday’s individual
finals.
The Bruins faced and defeated several teams in their preliminary
meet earlier this year. Alabama, Michigan and Oregon State each
fell to a powerful Bruin team that lost just two meets in 2001.
The team scored a season-high 198.250 against the Beavers in a
dual meet on Feb. 16. Alabama succumbed to a Bruin score of 197.5
on Jan. 28 when senior Mohini Bhardwaj set a school record 39.8 in
the all-around, a score she would break later in the season.
Michigan played host to the Bruins on March 9, and fell
197.7-197.125.
Florida and Oklahoma, the two teams the Bruins have yet to face,
are ranked 12th and 19th in the nation, respectively.
UCLA is coming off a stellar performance in the West Regional.
The team put together a score of 197.775, its third highest of the
season. Oregon State advanced as the distant second-place finisher
with a 194.075.
“We pretty much want to repeat what we did at regionals,
minus the falls,” sophomore Malia Jones said. “If we do
fall, we want to be able to get up and finish our
routines.”
Recovering from a fall is not something the Bruins had to worry
about last year. The team was flawless en route to its second
national championship under Head Coach Valorie Kondos Field.
Kondos Field believes she has her team ready to repeat.
“We’re ready physically, and we’re very
focused,” she said. “All it’s going to take is
for (the team) to want it.”
One athlete in particular might want this championship more than
anyone. It will be the final meet as a Bruin for Bhardwaj, who is a
senior. The team captain is an eight time All-American, as well as
the defending champion on the uneven bars. This year, she hopes to
win the all-around championship as well as individual titles in
Saturday’s competition.
“It would be absolutely wonderful if Mohini won the
all-around,” Kondos Field said. “We haven’t had
an all-around champ since before it was an NCAA sport. She’s
definitely the best gymnast on the floor.’
But before Bhardwaj and her teammates can focus on
Saturday’s individual meet, they will have to get past the
University of Georgia in a possible Super Six match up Friday for
the team title. The Bruins defeated the Gym Dogs in a dual meet
197.475-197.375 earlier this year. That meet took place in the
friendly confines of Pauley Pavilion, but this time Georgia will
have home-gym advantage.
The Bulldogs are undefeated at Stegeman Coliseum, and recently
posted a 198.0 at the SEC championships, winning the conference
title for the 11th time. It has been four years since a team other
than Georgia or UCLA has taken home the national championship. In
addition, the Gym Dogs and Bruins are the only teams to qualify for
the Super Six every year since its inception in 1993. Georgia has
finished in one of the top three spots at the NCAA finals 10 out of
the last 11 years.
UCLA will have to be nearly perfect to defeat Georgia in its own
gym.
“We want to go 24 for 24,” sophomore Kristin Parker
said of the Bruins goal of perfection.
Of course, defeating the host school, a perennial powerhouse, in
its own gym would make the victory even more rewarding.
GYMNASTICS Top seeded gymnasts at the
NCAA Championships Original by VICTOR CHEN/Daily Bruin Web
adaptation by MONICA KWONG/Daily Bruin Senior Staff