Stanford hopes to solve w. gym mastery
By Esther Hui
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
It was several months ago at a training camp when UCLA women’s
gymnastics head coach Valerie Kondos happened to glance down and
see Stanford head coach Breck Greenwood’s powerbook. Written there
was what Greenwood called his No. 1 goal for the 1995 Cardinal team
 BEAT UCLA.
UCLA is 19-1 in team competition with Stanford, but the Cardinal
is said to have the top recruiting class of 1995. Stanford
recruited several top gymnasts after national team member Dominique
Dawes signed on the Cardinal roster. Though Dawes has since
deferred enrollment in the university, other freshman recruits
remain on what could be Stanford’s best team ever.
"(Stanford) is supposed to be really good this year," UCLA
senior Megan Fenton said. "They’ve had good teams in the past,
we’ve just been better."
Stanford scored 190.50 in its dual meet against California last
weekend, two-tenths of a point higher than UCLA’s 190.325 win over
Fullerton. Stanford will get a chance to prove itself against UCLA
when it faces the Bruins and Santa Barbara tomorrow at 7 p.m. in
the Wooden Center. It will be the first home meet of the season for
the Bruins, and the first against both the Cardinal and the
Gauchos.
"Stanford has gotten excellent recruits throughout the years,
but for some reason they don’t produce," Kondos said. "They had
gymnasts injured last year, but this year they have the best
recruiting class in the country. It should be a very close
meet."
Competing all-around for the Bruins will be freshman Stella Umeh
and sophomore Leah Homma. Umeh debuted last weekend for the Bruins
with a first place all-around score of 39.050 against Fullerton
while former Canadian teammate Homma placed third with a 38.200.
Senior All-American Kareema Marrow will compete in bars, vault and
floor, after sitting out three of the events in last weekend’s meet
because of the effects of an ankle injury.
Though the Bruins’ score last weekend was the highest first meet
score in years, Kondos believes there is room for improvement after
what she called an uncharacteristic amount of falls on the
beam.
"A meet is a really good way to judge where you are as far as
being ready," Fenton said. "This weekend’s practice has been good.
We’ve been able to work on the problem areas that came out in (last
weekend’s) meet. We should get better."