W. gym wins despite missteps

W. gym wins despite missteps

Bruins overcome mistakes, continue undefeated streak

By Esther Hui

Daily Bruin Staff

It was the last home meet of the regular season for the No. 5
UCLA women’s gymnastics team Saturday night and, despite several
setbacks, the Bruins managed their second highest score of the
season (194.800) to beat California (192.300), Denver (191.050) and
Seattle-Pacific (187.000). The win increased the Bruins undefeated
streak to four meets.

Highlighting the evening for the Bruins was a hat trick in the
all-around completed by Stella Umeh (39.400), Leah Homma (39.075)
and Kiralee Hayashi (38.850). But two falls on beam and an
inordinate amount of problems on floor put a damper on the team
performance and kept the Bruins from surpassing the 195.100 they
scored last weekend.

"It’s nice to know they can count falls and still go high 194s,"
UCLA head coach Valorie Kondos said. "When we had our catastrophe
at Arizona (where the Bruins had four falls on beam) it was a big
wake-up call. And I feel this is just as big a wake-up call. Now
they know they have the potential to be one of the high-scoring
teams in the country, and what they need to do to show it."

The Bruins began slowly on vault, with no major errors, and a
first place tie between Bruin Dee Fischer (9.825) and Cal’s Candice
Kwok. The pace picked up on bars, probably UCLA’s best event of the
evening, where five of the six Bruins nailed perfect landings. Umeh
swung two full twisting giants to a Tkatchev release move, and
later in the routine threw another Tkatchev for second place
(9.825). Homma threw a Jaeger release move and a stuck double
layout dismount for first place (9.90).

The Bruins moved onto beam in good position, having totaled the
highest beam score in the country (39.400) the week before, and
leading the competition by a substantial margin.

Susie Erickson began the event solidly with a handspring,
handspring layout step out, and a 2 12 twist dismount (9.80).
Erickson’s beam routine has become one of the Bruins most
dependable assets in the event, as she has scored a 9.70 or higher
in the lead-off position in the last four meets.

Homma nailed a handspring, layout punch to handspring and a
stuck full twist off the side (9.925) to tie for first place with
Umeh, who tumbled a clean handspring, layout punch, handspring,
layout step out and stuck double tuck dismount.

But the beam event again proved to be an indicator of UCLA’s
entire performance, with falls by both Corinne Chee and Amy Smith.
On floor, the Bruins’ leadoff performer, Chee, sat down her double
pike first tumbling pass, and didn’t finish either of her other two
passes totalling a 7.70. Fischer and Homma both greatly overrated
their first passes, scoring a 9.475 and 9.50, respectively, for a
disappointing floor total of 48.400.

"We had a few good things, and a few bad things," Homma said.
"We could’ve done better. But we were motivated, because knew we
needed a high score for our regional qualifying score."

Said Kondos: "If anything they learned that when they’re
competing on an event, and there’s one little setback, you can’t
let it snowball into a catastrophe. I know they get flustered, but
that’s what being mentally tough is all about. It’s easy to hit
when things are going your way, it’s not as easy to high with
obstacles."

JUSTIN WARREN/Daily Bruin

Kiralee Hayashi took third place in the all-around at Saturday’s
meet.

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