Gymnastics: Gymnasts land championship bid

It seems as though a sleeping giant has woken up just in
time.

Saturday, in North Carolina State’s Reynolds Coliseum, the
No. 1 UCLA gymnastics team made up for its disappointing Pac-10
Championship loss by winning the NCAA Southeast Regional
competition, thereby securing itself a spot at the NCAA National
Championships.

And maybe the scariest thing for the rest of the country is that
UCLA coach Valorie Kondos Field was only 90 percent satisfied with
her team’s weekend performance.

“It bothers me when our mistakes are mental,” Kondos
Field said. “We’re just not mentally tough. By this
time of year, I’d expect us to be more mentally
prepared.”

But that is something to address in the coming week. For now,
the Bruins can be satisfied with their first place finish.

UCLA outmatched five other teams in the Southeast region,
including No. 12 North Carolina, No. 13 Nebraska, No. 21 West
Virginia, No. 22 North Carolina State and Maryland.

The Bruins started the meet off in solid
fashion on the balance beam. Senior Jeanette Antolin tied
her career-high score of 9.95, which was reinforced by senior
Yvonne Tousek’s 9.9 and capped off by senior Kristen
Maloney’s 9.95 en route to a 49.425 team score after one
rotation.

UCLA then moved to the floor exercise, where Maloney’s
performance earned her a team-high floor score of
9.9, followed up by Tousek and senior Jamie Dantzscher’s
9.875s. The Bruins totaled a floor score of 49.325 and held a
meet-leading 98.75 after two rotations.

The Bruins broke the competition open during the third rotation,
which had them on the vault. After a 9.9 from freshman Ashley
Peckett, Maloney scored her first perfect 10 on the apparatus,
followed by sophomore Kate Richardson’s 9.95 and ending with
Antolin’s seventh consecutive 10 on vault. By the time the
rotation ended, UCLA had amassed a school-record 49.725 on the
apparatus.

UCLA finished the meet off on the uneven bars, needing only a
47.925 to gain an NCAA National Championship berth, but it
wasn’t an easy ride.

The Bruins nearly suffered a second consecutive postseason
meet collapse when Tousek and freshman Lori Winn both
fell during their bar routines.

With the team in bad shape, Antolin ““ the eventual
all-around winner ““ and Richardson stepped up and
clinched the win with a 9.95 and 9.925, respectively, helping
the team garner a 48.85 bar score. 

Also qualifying for the NCAA Championships was Nebraska, which
finished second with a score of 196.375.

The Bruins will now gear up for the national championships, to
be held at Pauley Pavilion from April 15-17.

If Kondos Field is successful in remedying the mental problems,
the defending champions could very easily find themselves back atop
the podium.

“I think we’re absolutely the best in the
country,” Kondos Field said. “When we hit 24 for 24,
we’re going to win.”