UCLA gymnastics team wins its semifinal, advances to the Super Six finals
The team poses for the camera before the announcement of the results from the semifinals.
By Mansi Sheth
April 20, 2012 2:56 p.m.
DULUTH, Ga. “”mdash; When UCLA competes tomorrow, there will be more familiar faces at the Super Six finals than the team is used to.
The Pac-12 swept the first semifinal of the NCAA championships Friday, as UCLA, Utah and Stanford all grabbed a spot in the finals Saturday.
The Bruins won the meet with a 197.400, scoring almost a full point higher than last year’s semifinal performance (196.500). Utah was second and Stanford placed third.
“The power of the Pac-12 is just overwhelming,” coach Valorie Kondos Field said. “I don’t feel like we’re three individual teams up here. I feel like we’re one team, and we’re all thinking that we’re sending out orange vibes there next few hours.”
The Pac-12’s presence in Saturday’s final could increase to four teams as No. 9 seed Oregon State will compete in the evening semifinal session, which starts at 6 p.m. EST.
However, the highest ranked seeds in Semifinal 2, Florida, Alabama, and Georgia are all Southeastern Conference teams. The SEC has traditionally dominated the Super Six finals, a trend Kondos Field hopes to see change.
“I think all of our programs have experienced being in the Super Six with very heavy SEC representation. And it is a bit odd. You do feel like you’re a foreigner sometimes. … But walking through the hotel, walking through the hallways here, walking onto the floor, when the teams are marching out, that’s when it really hits you,” she said.
“And with our conference getting immeasurably stronger with University of Utah here and Stanford, there is a comfort to familiarity. I think that’s a natural psychological thing that happens.”
UCLA avoided counting a fall despite uncharacteristic fall by redshirt junior Vanessa Zamarripa on beam and sophomore Sam Peszek on floor, ending the meet with 49 scores on all four events.
Senior Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs was a major reason UCLA was able to recover so quickly from the unexpected falls.
Hopfner-Hibbs followed both Zamarripa’s and Peszek’s routines with 9.9s. She qualified for Sunday’s individual event finals on both beam and floor, her two strongest events.
“All year, I’ve thought about just going out there and doing my best for the team,” Hopfner-Hibbs said.
“You can’t control what people do after you go, you can only control what you are about to do. So, I just go out there and enjoy every single minute.”
Final scores of Semifinal #1:
1. UCLA 197.400
2. Utah 197.200
3. Stanford 197.125
4. Oklahoma 196.925
5. Nebraska 196.625
6. LSU 196.550
Zamarripa, senior Aisha Gerber and sophomore Olivia Courtney qualified for event finals on uneven bars. Peszek and Hopfner-Hibbs qualified for event finals on balance beam. Zamarripa and Hopfner-Hibbs qualified for event finals on floor.
