Gymnastics exhibition routine gives athletes chance to experiment
Freshman Sonya Meraz started her rookie season performing exhibition routines, but she managed to translate that experience into a starting role, sometimes in all four apparatuses. (Angie Wang/Daily Bruin senior staff)
By Boer Fu
March 3, 2015 12:56 a.m.
The final score sheet is never the full story of a college gymnastics meet.
What it displays is the six scores from every one of the four events. What it never shows is that there is always a gymnast who competes like everyone else on an apparatus, but doesn’t get her score posted to the final scoreboard.
Such a gymnast is said to be competing in an exhibition routine.
In a college women’s gymnastics meet, a team submits a six-person official list for each of the four rotations: vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. After each rotation, all six scores are posted to the scoreboard. The lowest of the six is eliminated so that five scores contribute to the team’s total.
Apart from the six gymnasts officially competing for each apparatus, many teams opt to send an extra gymnast to perform an exhibition routine. However, the exhibition score can not be included in the team’s total, even if it turns out to be a 10.000.
The UCLA gymnastics team sometimes uses exhibition routines as a way for freshmen to make their college debuts. Some upperclassmen also use this opportunity to try out the apparatuses they don’t usually compete in.
The quad meet UCLA hosted on Feb. 21 saw freshman Rechelle Dennis make her debut for the Bruins in an exhibition routine on bars. She received a score of 9.825 – one that was high enough to improve the team’s total by 0.200 had it been taken into account officially.
“I feel really good to go out and hit a good routine under my first performance as a Bruin,” Dennis said. “I’ve been training a lot in the gym, trying to get into meet scenarios … so that when I did get the opportunity, I’d be able to do my best.”
Coach Valorie Kondos Field lauded the freshman’s composure and poise in her first collegiate exhibition performance.
“She did great. She competed with such confidence,” Kondos Field said. “She’s not nervous at all when she knows she’s competing.”
Dennis said she learned she was competing only the day before the meet.
From the athletes’ perspectives, the call for exhibition routines can come unexpectedly. But to Kondos Field, the decision of which gymnast to put on the team list is a systematic one.
“We look at our team like it’s a seven-person team,” Kondos Field said. “So instead of six people going up there and an exhibition, it’s really seven. If we were to count all seven scores, who would we want up there?”
After participating in exhibition routines several times, a gymnast may make her way onto the official six-person list. To achieve that, she has to score better than someone who is already on the list, according to Kondos Field.
On the other hand, Kondos Field said she didn’t want to take a person out simply because of a low score because that might send a negative message to the athlete. As a result, Dennis didn’t feature in the official team list in Saturday’s meet against Arizona State. She participated in the exhibition routine on bars again and scored a 9.675.
Freshman Sonya Meraz is not a stranger to this selection process. Coming to UCLA for her first year, Meraz has already competed all-around in two meets. She won one of them, the home meet against then-No. 17 Washington, with a personal total of 39.025. But at the start of the season, Meraz competed in several exhibition routines on different apparatuses before making her way into the official lineups.
“I think (competition and exhibition routines) are both good for you,” Meraz said. “I like doing exhibitions to get out there and to prove myself that I can be part of the competition team.”
