Team aims to top former successes

GYMNASTICS The defending national championship
team will be making a run at its third national title in five
years. All-Around Mohini Bhardwaj
Senior 4’10 Onnie Willis Sophomore, 5’2
Vault Bars Kristin
Parker Sophomore, 5’1 Kristen Maloney
Freshman, 5’0 Beam Floor
Malia Jones Freshman, 5’0 Original by VICTOR
CHEN/Daily Bruin Web Adaptation by STEPHEN WONG

By Adam Karon
Daily Bruin Staff

Near perfection is hard to improve upon; this year, the UCLA
gymnastics team is attempting to do just that.

Last year’s team won the NCAA title, but this year’s
team has even higher goals.

“We want to go undefeated,” freshman Kristen Maloney
said. “We just have to keep coming to the gym and working
hard.”

Ask any girl on the squad what the team’s goal is this
year, and she will echo Maloney’s thoughts. Simply winning
the school’s third national championship in five years is no
longer the chief aspiration.

“This year, we want to win every meet,” head coach
Valorie Kondos Field said. “Our team last year set a pretty
high standard. We can’t live off the reputation and laurels
of years past.”

Four Olympians will help the Bruins forge a new reputation.
Freshmen Jamie Dantzscher, Alyssa Beckerman and Kristen Maloney all
have valuable international experience as American Olympians that
could come in handy when the NCAAs begin. Yvonne Tousek competed as
an Olympian for the Canadian team.

But Olympic experience can only take a team so far. As with any
sport, leadership is key.

“The difference between this year and last is
leadership,” sophomore Onnie Willis said. “I feel like
a lot of our leadership this year comes from the younger
athletes.”

The team is relatively young when it comes to experience,
fielding nine freshmen and five sophomores, but these younger
gymnasts can compete. So far this year the Bruins have dominated,
winning the Maui Invitational and a Fullerton dual-meet, despite a
lineup filled with freshmen and sophomores.

“There are some high expectations,” Maloney said.
“We just have to try and live up to them.”

Her attitude as a freshman competing for the first time at the
nation’s premier gymnastics institution is indicative of the
rest of her class: they show absolutely no fear.

In addition to the Olympians, the country’s top recruiting
class includes Jamie Williams, Christy Erickson and Jeanette
Antolin, all of whom are expected to compete and contribute this
year despite their age.

“We may not have as much leadership as last year,”
sophomore Malia Jones said. “But the sophomore class sets a
good example.”

Willis leads perhaps the most talented sophomore class in the
nation. As a freshman, she set freshmen school records in the all
around (39.525), vault (10), bars (9.975) and floor (9.95). She
also earned first-team All-America honors on the vault and
second-team honors on bars and floor. Redshirt freshman Carly Raab
returns from a torn ACL to give the team an added boost.

Sophomore Doni Thompson recently won the all around competition
in Fullerton, followed closely by Jones. Kristin Parker rounds out
the solid group of sophomores with her dominance on the bars.

All five sophomores have experience at the national level, and
each athlete can step in at any time during a meet.

The junior class includes Lindsey Dong, Stephanie Johnson and
Valerie Velasco. These three will be expected to make up for the
lack of age, and the wisdom that comes with their experience. They
also will be ready to compete at any time

And then there’s Mohini Bhardwaj.

Described by the team’s media guide as “one of the
most talented and honored gymnasts in the country,” Bhardwaj
stands as the lone senior on one of the youngest teams in the
nation.

She is the defending uneven bars national champion, and finished
second a year ago in the all-around and on the beam. On the season,
Bhardwaj won 29 individual titles en route to averaging 39.431 in
the all around. She was the first gymnast in Pac-10 history to earn
all-conference honors in the all-around and all four events.

Despite these accomplishments, Bhardwaj’s toughest
challenge this year might come when she steps away from each
apparatus.

She is charged with leading her team, considered both the
youngest and the most talented, to Athens, Georgia for the 2001
national championship.

But even more important than winning a national championship is
winning the respect of those within the sport.

“You are not going to be respected as a UCLA Bruin gymnast
just because you are part of UCLA gymnastics,” Kondos Field
said. “You need to re-create that reputation all over
again.”