ONLINE EXTRA: Weekend Gymnastics Results

By Eli Karon
Daily Bruin Contributor

The third-ranked UCLA women’s gymnastics team traveled to
Arizona on Friday to take on the No. 6 Wildcats. The meet can only
be characterized with three words: the Good, the Bad, and the
Ugly.

We’ll start with the bad. UCLA was defeated on Friday by
.75 of a point. The final score read 195.175 to 195.1. However,
even under the category of “bad,” the Bruins showed how
great their entire team is.

Now we’ll take a look at the ugly.  During the first
warm-up rotation, junior All-American Kristin Parker slipped while
practicing on the uneven bars.

Parker slammed her head and neck into the high bar and fell to
the floor. Fortunately, assistant coach Milo Johnson was positioned
to break Parker’s fall, possibly preventing a more serious
injury.

Luckily for Parker and the Bruins, the injury looked worse than
it was.  The extent of the injury is purely muscular, and
Parker is expected to return for the February 10 meet against
Stanford. The Bruins flew home and went directly to a
hospital, where x-rays were negative on Parker’s neck
area.

“You don’t go through a season without injuries to
your top players,” Head Coach Valorie Kondos Field
said. “Kristin just had a very scary fall.”

The injury forced Kondos Field to shuffle her original lineup,
an unexpected change the Bruins faced. Parker, though physically
shaken, could think of nothing but her teammates. 

“I felt horrible that I wasn’t there for my
teammates,” Parker said.  “They did an awesome
job.”

This brings us to the good. Enter Jamie Williams, Valerie
Velasco and Michelle Conway. All three girls made unexpected
appearances during the meet, and their results were nothing short
of spectacular.

Williams, a sophomore from Tucson, Arizona, competed in the
floor exercise in front of a hometown crowd. Her routine provided
the highlight of the meet, a career-high 9.775. 

“Jamie Williams’ floor routine was probably the
highlight of my coaching career,” Kondos Field
said. 

Her teammates rushed onto the mat to greet Williams following
her performance, excited for her performance and thankful for her
score.

“It was really exciting to watch the people who stepped
in,” Parker said.  “Jamie’s floor routine
was so exciting.”

Also coming through for UCLA on short notice was
Velasco. Velasco, a senior, competed in the all-around and
placed second with a season-best 38.5. Among her scores was a
career-high tying 9.85 on beam.

Freshman Michelle Conway led off on the beam with a 9.8, a
career high for her young collegiate career.

“The athletes that had to come in did a phenomenal
job,” Kondos Field said. “We need our entire team to be
ready to compete.”