After a tough season marked with injuries and mistakes, the UCLA
gymnastics team finally played up to their reputation and potential
this past weekend, finishing second at the Pac-10 Championships in
Corvallis, Ore.
“It was the first time this season that we competed
knowing each athlete would hit their routines,” coach Valorie
Kondos Field said. “Even though our training in the gym has
been better than most years, we hadn’t put it all together in
competition until this last weekend.”
The No. 9 nationally ranked Bruins had their best meet of the
season, scoring a season-high 196.8. However, even their best
performance was not enough for the win, as Stanford had a final
score of 197.1.
Senior Kate Richardson and sophomore Jordan Schwikert led the
way for the team as they placed second and third, respectively, in
the all-around.
Richardson had yet another solid performance, finishing only .1
behind Stanford’s Tabitha Yin with a 39.550. Her only mistake
of the day was a landing on the vault in which she took a slight
hop backward after completing her routine.
“Ever since our last home meet, she has gotten in the zone
and returned to competing like a champion,” Kondos Field
said. “She did an amazing job. Everything was right on, and
you have to remember she is still struggling with her tricep
injury. So for her to be able to compete as well as she did is a
testament to her character and strength as an athlete.”
The team will now travel to Arkansas to take on Illinois,
Illinois-Chicago, Southeast Missouri State and host Arkansas at the
NCAA South Central Regional.
“We still have room for improvement, which is good because
we had our highest score and we can only go up,” freshman
Kristina Comforte said.