Stricken with illness and injury, and having fallen a total of
four times on the floor exercise and two times on the beam, the
UCLA gymnastics team still managed to stumble its way to a victory
on Friday as it defeated Arizona State, 194.275-193.4.
“We didn’t compete like the normal UCLA gymnastics
team competes,” said freshman Tasha Schwikert, winner of the
overall competition with a score of 39.625. “We just had an
off night as a team. We had quite a bit of falls, which isn’t
characteristic of us.”
Also uncharacteristic of previous meets for the No. 1 Bruins was
their lineup, which featured several athletes not accustomed to
seeing competition this year. Ten of the team’s available 13
gymnasts contributed on Friday, a lineup which featured two more
competitors than in any of the Bruins’ (6-1) previous four
meets this season.
“The lineup wasn’t our traditional lineup,”
Schwikert said. “We didn’t have our
“˜A-team’ up. (Coach Valorie Kondos Field) is very smart
with what she does to the lineup and she has a reason for
everything. She wanted to give everyone on the team a chance to
compete and a chance to prove themselves.”
There was no better time for that than on Friday against the No.
17 Sun Devils.
The combination of an ailing squad and a relatively low-ranked
competitor gave both senior Kisha Auld and sophomore Michelle
Selesky a chance to compete.
The two filled in the gaps left by freshman Lindsey Vanden
Eykel, who competed only on bars due to soreness in her back, and
freshman Jordan Schwikert, an all-around competitor who has been
limited to a total of three events in the team’s past two
meets because of an aggravated toe injury.
“My toe is slightly getting better,” Jordan
Schwikert said. “It’s a slow process but I should be
ready to go for the rest of the year. Tape it and I’ll be
good to go.”
Despite referring to her team’s performance as
“ugly,” Kondos Field was still encouraged by what she
saw on Friday night.
“The past few weeks I’ve had to talk to them about
not letting a bad performance get in their way,” Kondos Field
said. “They did a good job of staying in the moment and
performing despite their mistakes this time.”