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UCLA gymnastics wins sixth NCAA championship, UCLA’s 105th

By Mansi Sheth

April 25, 2010 9:32 p.m.

Championship No. 105 has arrived at UCLA, care of the gymnastics team.

Needing a 49.1 to pass Oklahoma and clinch the national title, the UCLA gymnastics team delivered its best floor performance of the season during the final rotation of the night, tallying four scores of 9.9 or more to claim its sixth national title.

Leading the competition from the beginning, the Bruins scored a 197.725 en route to their first gymnastics title since 2004 and UCLA’s 105th NCAA championship. The team won three of four events to comfortably take the title, defeating second-place finisher Oklahoma by nearly half a point.

Alabama scored a 197.225 to finish third, followed by Stanford, Florida and Utah.

UCLA entered the competition ranked No. 1 after earning the highest scores in the nation in consecutive postseason meets. After Thursday’s preliminaries, the Bruins’ team total of 196.875 was once again the top score in the country.

Looking back at UCLA’s stellar performances the past three weeks, coach Valorie Kondos Field never doubted the team’s ability to advance to the Super Six and win the national championship.

“(Winning) was like the master plan coming to fruition,” she said. “Getting first place at nationals was what was supposed to happen if everything went according to plan.”

The team began the meet confidently, with freshman Monique De La Torre scoring a career-high of 9.85 on vault to start the rotation. Redshirt junior Brittani McCullough earned a career-high and competition-best 9.950 to lead the Bruins to a solid team total of 49.475.

After a bye during the second rotation, UCLA maintained its lead with a 49.325 on uneven bars. Senior Anna Li continued her dominance on the apparatus, scoring a solid 9.9 to match teammate Vanessa Zamarripa’s score.

With all six Bruins scoring at least 9.8 on the balance beam, UCLA showed no sign of uncertainty on the apparatus, which has been the team’s biggest site of inconsistency all year. Sophomores Zamarripa and Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs both scored 9.9 to boost UCLA’s team total to 148.175 after three events.

Going into their final event, the Bruins deciding to concentrate on hitting clean routines.

“We wanted to focus on ourselves,” Kondos Field said. “When Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs landed her last pass (on floor), (the team) just started sobbing, not because they knew they had won but because they had achieved their goal of hitting 24 for 24 routines.”

In addition to winning a national championship on Friday, four Bruins competed in individual event finals on Saturday.

Zamarripa and McCullough won national titles in vault and floor exercise, respectively.

Despite their individual triumphs, both gymnasts agree that winning the team championship remains the highlight of their NCAA experience.

“This is icing on the cake,” Zamarripa said. “We already won the team title, and I think that is the most important part. “

“It’s completely surreal. I can’t believe all this just happened.”

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