UCLA gymnastics sharpens focus for final home meet against Stanford

Before giving its home crowd at Pauley Pavilion one final encore performance, UCLA gymnastics made sure to revisit its theme of the season.

“Our theme for the year is to be maniacal … when it comes to details,” said coach Valorie Kondos Field. “Maniacal meaning that your focus is so razor-sharp that anything less of perfection is not acceptable.”

No. 8 UCLA gymnastics (9-1) is preparing for its last home meet of the season against No. 13 Stanford (5-6-1) Saturday. Coming off a season-high point total against Arizona State, UCLA hopes to claim its sixth-consecutive win of the season.

“We have switched up our training a little bit so the days they would be going lighter in the gym, we have them do nothing. They don’t even come to the gym. They have a full day off, full rest,” Kondos Field said. “But the days that they are in the gym, it is full 100 percent, four events, lunatic, maniacal … and it is working.”

Kondos Field said that she understands that at this point, more than halfway into the season, it is easy for bad habits to form because the gymnasts are tired. However, she pointed out that every gymnast on the team needs to get maniacal or be a lunatic with every detail in a gym, whether in training or in competition.

“But it is just the mindset,” Kondos Field said. “You get in and you do not settle for anything less than … that intensity in training.”

Although they’re ranked a few spots below the Bruins, the Cardinal are charging out of a season-best score of 197.525 against the No. 25 Washington Huskies.

Celebrating their Senior Night in Maples Pavilion, the Cardinal saved their best for the final act, as they overcame three straight losses to record their highest team score in almost seven years.

Earlier this season, UCLA faced Stanford on Feb. 14, winning 197.075 to 196.225. Both teams were missing one of their standout performers, UCLA without redshirt sophomore Christine Peng-Peng Lee and Stanford without freshman Elizabeth Price.

“Our (sport) is called a game of quarter-tenths. It literally is one slight of a quarter-tenth,” Kondos Field said, “If every single person can get a quarter of tenth better, (think about) how much that adds up in your team score.”

Fifth-year senior Jordan Williams has been one of the team’s leading performers on vault. Although suffering from lingering back and ankle injuries, Williams has scored three 9.950s in the past few weeks for the team and hopes to make everything count in her last home meet Saturday.

“It really comes down to landing, so hopefully this will be the one,” Williams said. “It is kind of a strange position for me because it is my first and last year competing in Pauley. It is bittersweet.”

Similarly another consistent all-around gymnast on the team is freshman Sonya Meraz. Akin to Williams, Meraz is eager to save her best performance yet for the last home meet, even though she has many more to come in future seasons.

“I have been working on form on vault just to make it more cleaner and for bars, hitting handstands,” Meraz said. “Once you figure out what works, you just keep doing that and you just do it until you get it.”