In the opening home meet of the season, the No. 3 UCLA gymnastics team solidly defeated Arizona 196.375-193.675.
UCLA took the top spot in each event and posted up 16 career-best marks.
“I was very pleased because we had specific things we wanted to accomplish, that we wanted to improve upon, and they did those,” coach Valerie Kondos Fields said.
The Bruins headed into the final rotation on the floor only one point ahead of the Wildcats. But with six career-high performances in the event, UCLA pulled away to seal the victory.
The highlight of the day for the Bruins was freshman Vanessa Zamarripa, who took home the all-around title with a career-high score of 39.4.
“It feels really good,” Zamarripa said. “It’s definitely a confidence boost and I know that I can just keep getting better and improving more in the gym and in the competition.”
Zamarripa’s all-around win came with a 9.9 on the vault, a 9.85 on the uneven parallel bars, a 9.825 on the balance beam and a 9.825 on the floor exercise.
Also posting up wins for the Bruins were sophomore Mizuki Sato and freshman Aisha Gerber. Sato won both the vault and the floor exercise with a 9.9 ““ both career-bests ““ while Gerber took first on the balance beam with a career-high score of 9.925.
Gerber went on to finish second in the all-around with a career-high 38.85.
Fields is confident that the team is only going to keep improving through the season.
“I have to be patient and realize that if we keep getting two-tenths better every meet, then that’ll be great,” Fields said. “We still don’t have three of our big guns in, so the future is looking very bright. I’m glad our younger classmen are getting a chance to compete though.”
The three big guns are senior Ariana Berlin, junior Anna Li and redshirt sophomore Brittani McCullough. All three are nursing injuries and slowly returning to action for UCLA.
“I’m just trying to keep the reigns on myself really and not let them compete more until they’re fully healed,” Fields said.
Berlin and Li will both be all-around contenders for UCLA and each performed only in the uneven parallel bars at the meet.
After a 9.7 produced a score inquiry that had the performance score reevaluated and changed to a 9.875, Li took home first.
With two meets this upcoming weekend against Cal State Fullerton and California, the Bruins will have their hands full. But the team seems prepared for the challenge.
“In our sport it doesn’t come down to inches, it comes down to millimeters,” Fields said. “Competing in the Pac-10 is always very tough so whenever we go up against a Pac-10 team we have to be on our toes.”
Among those who attended was legendary coach John Wooden, who was there to honor and acknowledge scholar athletes on both teams as part of the John Wooden Challenge.