Improving doesn’t seem to be a problem for the UCLA gymnastics team, who jumped from No. 7 to No. 1 last week and is tied with Arkansas for the highest season average team total in the NCAA.
After climbing six spots in the rankings last week, the Bruins (3-0, 2-0 Pac-12) plan to raise the bar a few notches higher Friday when facing off against the No. 22 Washington Huskies (1-2, 0-1) in Seattle.
Even though the Huskies average a 193.300, about 3.5 points less than UCLA, the Bruins have no intention of resting on their laurels. Coach Valorie Kondos Field insists there are still areas where the Bruins can improve.
“I don’t feel that we should drop in quality or performance or number of hit routines. We’d like to go out and hit 24 for 24 routines,” she said.
“We’re working on cleaning up handstands on bars, sticking dismounts, and improving leaps.”
Sophomore Olivia Courtney agreed with Kondos Field. Courtney, who scored a 9.9 on both bars and vault at last week’s meet, believes that she, and her team, can do better.
“We know we can make improvements on everything we did (last meet),” she said. “Winning last week built up our confidence, but we know we can go even higher.”
In addition to wanting to raise the team’s score, Courtney has also set personal goals for Friday’s meet.
“I’ve been really working hard to get a 10 on vault and make it into the beam lineup,” she said.
Courtney is not the only gymnast who looks to improve personally at the Washington meet.
Sophomore Samantha Peszek, who will perform only on balance beam and uneven bars Friday, is also shooting for perfection.
“I’m working to get a 10 on beam or bars,” said Peszek, who has competed in the all-around the past three meets.
“I’ve come close a few times and there’s only a little more that I need to do to get that 10. I want to go out there and stay consistent, but I also want to go uphill from here.”
Even with personal and team goals set for the Washington meet, Peszek and her teammates admit that getting better throughout the season is a challenge.
Junior Monique De La Torre believes that when facing the mid-season slump, teamwork and trust are imperative in keeping the energy level up in practices and meets.
“For mid-season energy you have to trust your teammates and really be able to know you can depend on them,” De La Torre said.
“Approaching mid-season, everyone knows their role, and practices should be harder than the meets themselves. I feel like that’s what we’ve been doing.”
The Bruins have been applying a competitive approach to their practices since the beginning of the season. But according to Kondos Field and the gymnasts, it was not until last weekend’s meet that the team reached “average” scoring territory.
“We did our job, and it was okay,” Peszek said. “They told us the score (last week) and we expected it to be so much lower because we’re used to doing so much better in the gym. We’re excited to build from that this week.”
For De La Torre, UCLA’s 197.575 win against San Jose State last Sunday was not enough to satisfy the team because they know they are capable of much more.
“A mid-197 is normal for us,” De La Torre said. “It’s time to do more than normal now.”