After gaining 15 pounds of solid muscle this quarter, first-year Ben Blackburn couldn’t be happier with the results he has seen at the gym.

To a casual observer, watching a Brazilian jiu-jitsu match might just look like two people wrestling on the floor. But to the experienced eye, the two fighters are working to submit each other using various tactics honed through many hours of training.

Saturday was a night of the elite competing head to head.

It came down to a tiebreaker between Utah and the Bruins for the third and final spot in the NCAA Championships.

The UCLA gymnastics team has taken full advantage of the week and a half it has had to train. Over this period of time, the team has filled its practices with intrasquad competitions.

Monday morning UCLA gymnastics coach Valorie Kondos Field stood pensively at Pardee Gym watching her squad train in their last practice of the season. The optimism in Kondos Field was evident as the gymnasts stretched and worked on their routines.

Although the No. 7 UCLA gymnastics team was pleased to get through the NCAA regionals, its second-place finish over the weekend really only served as its ticket to a shot at their ultimate goal.

Needing at least a second-place finish to continue their season, the Bruins got just that Saturday at the NCAA Regionals in Iowa City, Iowa, by scoring a 196.625, second to the No.

Upon becoming the 2009 Pac-10 Champions, the No. 7 UCLA women’s gymnastics team has had a full two weeks to train for the NCAA Regional Championship.

The Pac-10 Championship last weekend at Stanford proved the No. 7 Bruins are looking stronger than ever this season.
After the Bruins brought home a 14th Pac-10 trophy, all eight Bruins who competed at Stanford made the All-Pac-10 team only three days later.