UCLA gymnastics went into the NCAA championships knowing the odds of leaving with a title were against them.
And after a season pockmarked with obstacles, namely injuries and illness, the team finished with the only thing its impairments would let them – a personal victory.
The team’s placing was lower than it had hoped. UCLA finished fifth in its semifinal and did not progress to the six-team championship and individual finals saw redshirt junior Samantha Peszek fall on bars and senior Olivia Courtney place eighth on vault. However, the Bruins did manage to hit a season goal, which they had only managed to accomplish sparingly.
“We went 24 for 24 routines, something we certainly didn’t do at Pac-12 or regionals. The national champions didn’t even go 24 for 24,” said coach Valorie Kondos Field.
This is to say that none of the Bruins fell or made any major mistakes on their routines, which, though not enough to progress out of the semifinal, at least meant the team left Birmingham, Ala., without any regrets said Kondos Field.
That same mindset sums up the season, Peszek said.
“It was a really, really rough season, just like nationals,” Peszek said. “There were a lot of great things that happened but there were some setbacks. No one had the most healthy or the most perfect season, but we fought the whole way through.”
For UCLA this season, the little victories were what kept the injuries and letdowns from weighing on the team too heavily. Things like the season-high 197.5 against Arizona, Peszek and freshman Hallie Mosset’s returns to form and sophomore Danusia Francis’ crowd-pleasing dismount outweighed the losses of having some of the team’s heavyweights, like redshirt freshman Christine Peng-Peng Lee, unable to compete.
So for Courtney, though the national title alluded them, the team’s maturity and passion keeps her from thinking the season was unsuccessful.
“Obviously I’m bummed at the outcome, we trained for a national championship,” Courtney said. “But though we didn’t get the outcome we wanted, I know we gave it our all and I’m happy about that. We’re fighters and everybody did their best.”