Sounding off: UCLA gymnastics coach Valorie Kondos Field, Sam Peszek and Brittani McCullough on the individual event finals

CLEVELAND —
Coach Valorie Kondos Field’s opening statement:
“This weekend was one of the best weekends in sport in the country. Everybody talked about that championship last night as being one of the best athletic events they’ve ever been to, which is what we keep striving for as coaches. Athletics are about entertainment, and goodness gracious sakes alive, as Coach Wooden would say, it was an entertaining weekend.”

Kondos Field on Sam Peszek winning the individual title on beam:
“It’s been a privilege to coach Sam Peszek. The first thing I said to her was, “˜I’ve got to figure out what I can teach you on beam.’ She loves beam. She’ll stay up there for two hours a day, and if you look at her, she will salute you and do a routine. It’s great to have an athlete like that because that rubs off on our other athletes. She’s one of the most coachable athletes I’ve personally ever worked with.”

Sam Peszek on winning an individual national championship as a freshman:
“To be honest, I really didn’t have any expectations. I had no clue what this whole weekend was going to entail and it was awesome. I had a blast and all the beam competitors were amazing this whole weekend. Just to do my normal beam routine and a couple new things in there really topped it off.”

Redshirt senior Brittani McCullough on competing her floor routine for the last time in her collegiate career:
“It was really exciting but kind of sad when it ended. But it was a lot of fun to do and that was my goal really, to go out there and have fun performing my last routine. I did the best to my ability and I felt great doing it.”

McCullough on what she will remember most about this championship:
“Being a part of the team, really coming together as a team and figuring out how to be a team. We really came out and competed the way we wanted to.”