The UCLA gymnastics team crowded around sophomore Danusia Francis as she stuck the landing on her beam routine. She flipped sideways once, lightly landed on the beam, and immediately lifted off again into another flip that propelled her off the beam and solidly onto the floor mat. The crowd erupted in applause as Francis made NCAA history. She had just completed a brand-new dismount created by assistant coach Randy Lane.
“Especially in college, you can do stuff like that and it’s about pleasing the crowd. Everyone pretty much does the same thing in elite,” Francis said. “That dismount’s never been done in gymnastics. To pull that off was really nerve-wracking, but it was a relief and I was so happy.”
Francis was awarded a 9.90 amid cheers from the substantial crowd of 5,265 gathered at Pauley Pavilion for the 2014 season opener against No. 1 Florida, but despite her high score, No. 4 UCLA was narrowly outscored by a margin of 0.025 on the overall team score.
Sophomore Sophina DeJesus and senior Sydney Sawa performed first and second on the rotation, respectively, and struggled throughout. Coach Valorie Kondos Field said that starting on beam is one of the most important positions on the team during a meet, and it was DeJesus’ first time starting.
After DeJesus’ unsteady performance, Sawa fell off of the beam.
“I haven’t competed beam since my freshman year, so to get out there again was a little nerve-wracking,” Sawa said. “I always get a little bit nervous on beam, but just getting those numbers under your belt in practice and competition too is super important. The more I can get out there, the better I’ll be in the future.”
Though the Bruins had an unsteady start on beam, redshirt junior Samantha Peszek earned the overall highest score on beam with a 9.925. Her performance was second to last, right before Francis’ exciting routine finished out the third rotation.
“I didn’t really think about how the other girls were doing,” Peszek said. “I just kind of got in my own zone and trusted my routines and my skills and was able to get the job done. It’s always really fun for me to perform on beam, and I enjoy it. It’s my favorite event.”
Senior Olivia Courtney earned the highest score in any event with a 9.975 on vault, and said the meet against Florida helped boost the team’s confidence. She was part of the team that competed in last year’s NCAA championship, which Florida won.
“Obviously we can keep improving and we have baby steps to take, but I think a lot of people gained a lot of confidence,” Courtney said. “Starting from where we left off, we know what it feels like to get fourth place and nobody wants to get that.”
Even though the Bruins did not win the meet, Kondos Field expressed her excitement with how the team is competing at this point in the season. She said that she was unsure of how the freshman would perform, but did not expect the team to be as good as it was last night.
“I feel that right now we can compete against any team in the country,” Kondos Field said. “I think the potential for us to get better is tremendous. We are going to be a far different team in March than we are right now, and I don’t know if that is true about the other top teams in the country.”