Wednesday, 4/16/97 UCLA aims to land highest spot A unified team
looks for a strong finish in NCAAs
By Lisa Quon Daily Bruin Contributor At this time last year, no
one could have predicted how well the 1996 UCLA women’s gymnastics
team would do. Going into the NCAA Championships, the Bruins had
had a rather shaky season, showing glimpses of greatness but
cracking in crucial moments. The team had its season opener on Jan.
12, 1996 at Cal State Fullerton. There they suffered a difficult
loss to the unranked Titans. This was especially disappointing,
considering the high hopes for the preseason fourth-ranked team. In
the previous year, the Bruins had surprised everyone with a
fourth-place showing at the NCAA Championships and had four
returning All-Americans. After a win against Boise State, the
Bruins faced Pacific 10 rivals Stanford and Arizona, defeating
Stanford, but losing by a large margin to Arizona. This brought the
Bruins to a 2-2 record, as they plummeted from a fourth to a
19th-place ranking. Then, all of a sudden, that momentum shifted.
The Bruins won the UCLA Gilda Marx Invitational and showcased
UCLA’s newest beam sensation, Guatemalan freshman Luisa
Portocarrero. The Bruins went on to defeat the next nine teams they
faced. But at the Pac-10 Championships on March 26, UCLA finished a
disappointing fourth, its lowest finish ever at the Pac-10s.
Fortunately, this did not affect their regional bids, since the
Pac-10s have no bearing on qualification for the Regionals. Five
days before the West Regionals, the oft-injured Stella Umeh broke
her foot, forcing the Bruins to change their line-up without one of
its top all-arounders. The Bruins persevered, however, with a
come-from-behind win to beat out Oregon State in the final
rotation. Senior Dee Fischer shone the brightest, scoring a perfect
10 on vault. At the NCAA Championships on April 25, the Bruins
performed well enough in the preliminary competition to go on to
the Super Six the following day. There they surprised the world of
collegiate gymnastics with their string of steady performances,
including an NCAA Championship record of 49.45 on beam. UCLA
finished a close second to National Champion Alabama, but more
importantly, gave the performances of a lifetime. Leah Homma broke
the school all-around record with a 39.75. Umeh tied for second on
beam and fourth on bars in the individual event finals, and head
coach Valorie Kondos was named the National Association of College
Gymnastics Coach of the Year. Four of the Bruins were named All
Americans in 1996: senior Corrine Chee on beam, Homma on bars,
Portocarrero on beam and Umeh on bars and beam. Considering the
great finish of the 1996 team, and the arrival of three highly
touted freshmen, 1997 looked even more promising for the Bruins.
They entered the season with a No. 1 ranking, but their first meet
was with perennial powerhouse, No. 3 Georgia. In a close match, the
Bruins fell to the Bulldogs 196.95 to 195.725. By the end of
January, the season began to parallel last year’s. They stood at
2-2 going into the UCLA Invitational. UCLA ran away with the
victory over three other teams to show the full extent of their
capabilities. Following this, they went on to beat 18 straight
opponents before entering the Pac-10 Championships. Unlike last
year, however, they won easily in both the Pac-10s and West
Regionals to clinch the second seed in the NCAA Championships which
begin tomorrow. Though expectations are higher this year, the
Bruins do not feel any added pressure. "We aren’t going in feeling
any different," Homma said. "All we need to be successful is to
come together and hit our routines, and we’ll be satisfied even if
we don’t come away as NCAA Champions." As for the many comparisons
between last year’s team and this one, Umeh believes there are no
major differences; just a different team chemistry. "The team is
still really close; we never carry our attitudes from one year to
the next though," she said. Perhaps the greatest change is the
presence of three key ingredients of this 1997 team, freshmen Heidi
Moneymaker, Lena Degteva and Deborah Mink. "They (the freshmen) are
very important to our success," Kondos said. "They’ve obviously
never been in a National Championship meet and we don’t know how
they’ll handle expectations." What will it take to have a repeat
performance of last year’s great run at the National Championship?
The players are in order, the opponents are ready, the game is set.
It is simply a matter of execution. "We just want to give it 100
percent and have no regrets," assistant coach Mark Cook said. "It
is a matter of concentrating on our performance, not winning or
losing. Most importantly, to execute how we train." GENEVIEVE
LIANG/Daily Bruin Stella Umeh, on the beam in March of this year,
has been a big contributor for UCLA, despite injuries.