Monday, April 15, 1996, 1996
Handspring pike by Dee Fischer secures defeat of BeaversBy
Esther Hui
Daily Bruin Staff
It wasn’t quite the clincher for the UCLA women’s gymnastics
team, but it certainly didn’t hurt, as Dee Fischer ended Saturday
night’s West Regional championships with a perfect handspring pike
vault and a 10.0.
It was only the second perfect vault score in UCLA history, and
Fischer’s first-ever 10.0. And it was the icing on the cake for the
Bruins, who beat top-seeded Oregon State (195.450 Â 195.000)
for the West Regional crown and an automatic bid to the national
championships.
"It felt great," Fischer said. "It was probably the best thing I
could have done for my senior year, especially being at home. I had
a good warm-up, and before I went I just said, I’ll do it just like
I did in warm-up."
The evening had been just as close as anticipated between the
top two seeds. Oregon State led after the first event thanks to a
strong vault set which culminated in Amanda Turko’s stuck
handspring pike (9.975), which one judge gave a 10.0. UCLA began
well on bars, with Leah Homma throwing a Jaeger and a stuck double
layout dismount for a 9.90.
UCLA gained the lead after the second event which ironically was
beam, the event which was the Bruins’ undoing three weeks ago at
the Pacific 10 championships.
Corinne Chee had only a slight wobble on her leap sequence,
tumbled a handspring, layout step-out, handspring for a 9.85. Luisa
Portocarrero tumbled an unwavering two handsprings to a layout
step-out for a first-place 9.875.
The Beavers faltered on bars, where they missed five of six
routines and had two falls, but then rebounded on their third event
with a solid beam set. On the Bruins’ third event, floor, Amy Smith
won the event with a 9.850. Kiralee Hayashi over-rotated her
opening tumbling run, a whip to double tuck, and Homma sat down her
double pike.
This eliminated UCLA’s narrow margin for error and set up the
biggest duel of the evening during the last event, as the two teams
went into the last event tied for first place.
With the Bruins on vault and the Beavers on floor, the teams
traded routines back and forth to a loud crowd, which picked up on
the rivalry after the scores were announced going into the last
rotation.
Oregon State tumbled solidly on floor, with no major errors but
with no scores higher than 9.775. The Bruins began solidly with
their first three vaulters scoring above 9.750. Andrea Fong then
missed both vaults for an 8.875, increasing the pressure on Homma
and Fischer  who both knew that another miss would probably
lose the championship.
Homma stuck a handspring pike for a 9.925, and Fischer followed
with perfection.
"Sometimes you don’t want them to know the situation, you just
want them to do the job they have to do," UCLA head coach Valorie
Kondos said. "But they had done such a good job up until then, that
if they knew it was all on the line going into this last event,
especially on vaulting, where the harder you go the better, I felt
they could handle that. And they did."
Stanford placed third with a 194.700, and while the official
results of the other regions have not been released yet, Oregon
State will just have barely made the cut-off for a provisional bid
to the national championships to be held in two weeks at the
University of Alabama.
"I have been a nervous wreck for three days now," Kondos said.
"This team feels really young to me; you never know what they’re
going to do. We always peak late and it drives me crazy, but it
works, and it keeps them hungry all season, so I shouldn’t
complain."
PATRICK LAM/Daily Bruin
Teammates congratulate Dee Fischer after she scores her
first-ever 10.0 on vault  and only the second in UCLA
history.