After earning its highest point total of the season at the Pac-10 Championships, UCLA women’s gymnastics now has two weeks to gear up for the NCAA Regionals in West Virginia.
The Bruins will be placed in the Southeast Region and will have some stiff competition in No. 5 LSU and No. 17 Auburn. Only two of the six teams from each region will move onto the NCAA Championships, putting additional pressure on all the teams to perform well early in the competition.
Recording a season-best 197.2 on Saturday, the No. 8 Bruins edged out No. 4 Stanford and the rest of the competition to win its 13th Pac-10 Championship. The win gives the team momentum heading into the regionals.
After falling to Stanford in the regular-season finale on March 25, the team knew something had to change.
“We realized we had to make the decision to pick up the slack and stop the mental mistakes,” senior Michelle Selesky said.
The team is performing at their highest level of the season and for the first time is close to being completely healthy.
“We’re pretty much back to normal; we actually have a whole team now,” Selesky said.
Everything appears to be coming together for the Bruins, and with junior Tasha Schwikert and company competing at full strength, a national championship seems within reach.
Schwikert has been the backbone of the team throughout the season and was rewarded this week by being named the Pac-10 Gymnast of the Year.
Schwikert, the No. 3 gymnast in the nation, also took the Pac-10 all-around title for the second time in her career with a score of 39.75.
Freshman Anna Li, junior Jordan Schwikert and Selesky also were named to the Pac-10 All-Conference team.
Li received all-around honors in her first season with the Bruins and is expected to perform well in regionals.
“Anna stepped it up a lot in the Pac-10 Tournament. We made a point to attack any and all weaknesses and she did that,” Selesky said.
On top of the accolades of athleticism, the team also received academic awards when six Bruins were announced to the Pac-10 All-Academic team.
Senior Ashley Peckett was named to the first team, with Selesky being added to the second team, and four others receiving honorable mentions.
With half of the team competing at an Olympic-caliber level and maintaining a stellar GPA, the focus of this team is clearly evident.
“Outside of the gym, we study. We’ve been in sports since we were 3 and we understand what needs to get done,” Selesky said.