UCLA gymnastics sticks landing in final rotation to win quad meet
Junior Danusia Francis scored a career-best 9.950 on the floor exercise, leading UCLA to a quad meet win Saturday. (Angie Wang/Daily Bruin senior staff)
Gymnastics
| No. 9 UCLA | 197.050 |
| No. 7 Nebraska | 196.650 |
| Sacramento State | 194.150 |
| Bridgeport | 192.575 |
By Boer Fu
Feb. 23, 2015 3:00 a.m.
It came down to the last round of UCLA’s final rotation on floor to decide the winner of the gymnastics quad meet Saturday.
The Bruins’ two leaders in the floor exercise – redshirt junior Sadiqua Bynum and junior Danusia Francis – rose to the occasion, posting career highs and leading UCLA to its first win over a top-10 team this year.
No. 9 UCLA gymnastics outscored No. 7 Nebraska (196.650) with a total of 197.050 in Saturday’s quad meet at Pauley Pavilion that also featured Sacramento State (194.150) and Bridgeport (192.575).
“(The Cornhuskers) are a great team. And you know, it’s hard to come to someone else’s house and beat them, especially if they got a great crowd like we had today,” said coach Valorie Kondos Field. “But they put up a fight, and obviously it came down to the last competitor for us.”
Establishing a lead over the Huskers in their first rotation – vault – the Bruins kept increasing the score difference all the way into the last rotation. At the start of its floor exercise, UCLA was outscoring Nebraska with 147.825-147.425.
Sophomore Jennifer Pinches opened the event with a score of 9.875 that matched her career best. But freshman Sonya Meraz lost her balance and fell to the ground upon landing after a tumbling pass, receiving a 9.225. Junior Sophina DeJesus then landed out of bounds in the same corner where Meraz lost her balance, scoring 9.600.
By that time, the Huskers already finished their last rotation on vault, posting a final score of 196.650 on the scoreboard, and the Bruins had only three gymnasts remaining to boost their floor exercise score.
Francis managed to hold the pressure after her teammates’ missteps. She updated her career best on floor to a 9.950 with her signature James Bond routine, sharing first place on the floor exercise with Nebraska’s Ashley Lambert.
Francis said she did not feel the pressure of her teammates’ errors weighing on her during her career-best performance.
“I don’t think, ‘Oh no, I have to make up for them,’” Francis said. “Because there’s nothing you can do about it. All you can do is your best.”
It came down to the Bruins’ top floor-exercise performer, Bynum, to put an end to the suspense and seal the Bruin victory. Scoring a 9.925 that equaled her career best, Bynum pushed the team’s total score above Nebraska.
Beaming on the beam
Francis was not alone in breaking her own record, as redshirt sophomore Christine Peng-Peng Lee posted a 9.975 on balance beam, winning both beam and bars.
“Of course, I want to get a 10 every time,” Lee said. “(But I was) just doing that routine, just trying to get back to the rhythm, and I’m trying to do the best I can.”
