Gymnastics team confident after successful meets
By Misael Peraza
March 1, 2009 9:20 p.m.
The Bruins did better in Corvallis.
After the No. 4 UCLA gymnastics team came in second in last week’s meet at No. 12 Nebraska, it was crucial to win their following meet at No. 8 Oregon State to have a better chance of winning the NCAA women’s national championship.
Fortunately for the Bruins, the fine-tuning in their routines was enough to give them the win against the Beavers Friday in Corvallis. The Bruins won first place with a final score of 196.575-196.350.
“Their landings improved and their confidence improved,” said coach Valorie Kondos Field. “I’m glad we hit four events because that was our goal. We’ve been talking about how we’ve had seven competitions and we haven’t been able to hit four events well. This was the meet where we needed to do that. We focused on that and every event. We did really well and it was a good meet for both of us.”
Most of UCLA’s success took place in the third rotation during the floor event. Senior Ariana Berlin scored a season-high 9.85 in her routine, tying freshman Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs’ score. Sophomore Brittani McCullough tied her career-high score with an 9.875 and freshman Vanessa Zamarripa won the all-around with a final score of 39.375. Although not feeling 100 percent during her performance, Zamarripa is happy to know that she came in first place without performing to her full potential.
“It feels really good knowing I could have done so much better because my body was a little off tonight,” she said. “I’m not really feeling tired. Every week I hit refresh and it’s like I’m back to how I felt day one. I think that we can always keep growing.”
The Beavers put up a strong fight against the Bruins. During the final rotation of the meet, the competition got very tight. “They fought a good fight and gave us a run for our money,” Berlin said. “I wasn’t paying attention to the scores. After the last meet we had a team meeting and we decided that we cannot get to a low like this again.”
With Friday’s victory, the Bruins improve their record to 10-2. Now with a potential championship title in sight, UCLA gymnastics shifts its focus to Sunday’s meet against No. 1 Georgia. The meet will be televised live on FSN Prime Ticket.
“This is great because now we’re up against Georgia, four-time national champions,” Kondos Field said. “We’re able to come home and have two good home meets and hopefully keep improving.”
“What this victory meant is that we’re going to keep building and getting stronger until we get to nationals,” Berlin said. “We’re going to do everything in our power to reach our goal.”
