After a big victory at the Pac-10 Championships, the women’s gymnastics team hoped to land a spot in a regional close to home. Instead, the eighth-ranked Bruins received a trip across the nation to West Virginia for the NCAA Southeast Regionals.
“It is just a long day,” coach Valorie Kondos Field said. “We have to leave at 5:30 in the morning and it will take all day, and then we have to take a bus from Pittsburgh to Morgantown. The trip is tiring, and it can be an issue. But that’s the only bad part. We are really excited to go to a new venue and compete.”
Despite the unfavorable location, the team has high hopes and expectations as they head into the weekend. After last year’s disastrous showing, when the team failed to qualify for the NCAA Championships for the first time in 15 years, the Bruins hope to redeem themselves.
“Thinking about last year just fires me up,” sophomore Ariana Berlin said. “There is no way we are going to do a repeat of that and not go to the championships. The chemistry of the team this year is so different than last year that we don’t even think about it much.”
One of the main areas of focus has been the dismounts and landings. Although the team did post a season-high score of 197.2 to win the Pac-10 title, there is always room for improvement, and success in the postseason will require nothing less than perfection.
“Practices have been hard this week,” Kondos Field said. “We haven’t let up at all. We’ve focused on deliberate training, deliberately going after the smallest weaknesses we have. They are ready to compete, and they’ve all bought into the idea of perfection.”
Competing alongside the Bruins this weekend will be No. 5 LSU, No. 17 Auburn, No. 22 North Carolina State and No. 24 West Virginia. The meet also features three of the nations top five all-arounders in LSU’s Ashleigh Claire-Kearney, UCLA’s Tasha Schwikert and Auburn’s Julie Dwyer. All eyes will be on them as they battle it out for the top honors at regionals.
“Tasha is going out to win every meet,” Kondos Field said. “I don’t think she even knows who she is competing against. She knows that if she does her best, she will win and that’s all that she is focused on.”
Schwikert led the way for the Bruins all season long, bouncing back from a shoulder injury last season to reclaim the Pac-10 all-around title with her score of 39.75. She is currently ranked third in the nation, and she will look to reclaim the NCAA all-around championship that she won as a freshman.
With Schwikert leading the way, the Bruins hope to continue their recent surge and leave their mark this year. And if they need any extra motivation, the team is well aware that their national championship could be No. 100 for UCLA.