On a generally quiet holiday weekend around Westwood, the UCLA
gymnastics team was out making noise all over the country.
Friday, the Bruins traveled to Tucson, where they faced the
Arizona Wildcats in a dual meet they would eventually drop,
196.725-194.625. Despite the loss, Bruin Jamie Williams was
impressive in her season debut in front of family and friends.
Williams attended high school in Tucson, and performed well
enough to score a career-high 9.9 on beam for UCLA. She also
recorded a 9.775 to tie the team-high for the meet.
“That was really important to me because a lot of my
family was able to come and my old teammates,” Williams said.
“It was really fun.”
In contrast to the smaller, docile Arizona crowd, the Georgia
crowd the Bruins faced three days later was like a new world. 9,147
fans packed the Georgia Gym Dogs’ home arena to witness
Monday’s dual meet pitting two perennial national title
contenders.
The fans saw a much different UCLA team than Arizona faced., and
the outcome proved equally dissimilar.
UCLA captured a 197.85-197.475 victory, the two highest scores
in the nation this year. The UCLA squad had been 0-2 going into
Athens, but was able to achieve victory by embracing what coach
Valorie Kondos-Field has been preaching all year long: calm
confidence.
“We started off from the first event just really calm and
hitting our routines,” Kondos-Field said. “It was
awesome. It’s hard to win in anyone’s home gym unless
you’re perfect, but especially Georgia’s.
“We always strive to achieve calm confidence. I
didn’t think that would happen for a few meets, but it
definitely was there today.”
Leading the way was senior Jeanette Antolin, who recorded a
career-best 9.975 on the uneven bars, helping UCLA achieve a
national-best team total of 49.5. Kristen Maloney and Kate
Richardson each tied their career highs on the same event, scoring
9.9 and 9.925, respectively.
However, the meet was far from over after one rotation, as
Georgia tallied an impressive 49.4 on vault.
The teams continued to show why they are considered two of the
top programs in the nation year in and year out, battling hard
through all four rotations.
Entering the final rotation, UCLA held a slim 0.2 point lead
over Georgia, but was led by four scores of 9.925 or higher.
Maloney and Richardson each recorded 9.925s, while Antolin scored a
9.95 to win the all-around title and fellow senior Yvonne Tousek
matched Antolin with a 9.95 of her own to close the meet and clinch
the win.
“(Winning the all-around) doesn’t mean as much to me
as our team stepping up and doing an amazing job,” Antolin
said. “But it’s always fun to win an all-around. I
kinda feed off the energy of the crowd. I love competing in front
of big crowds.”
The Georgia crowd is notorious for its raucous support of
Georgia gymnastics, consistently packing Stegeman Coliseum with
thousands of spectators, especially when other top gymnastics
programs roll into Athens.
“They were very supportive,” Antolin said. “It
was a good experience.”