UCLA gymnastics updated its season-best score once again this weekend.
The No. 9 Bruins beat the No. 16 Cardinal 197.075-196.225 on Stanford’s home turf at Maples Pavilion, on Saturday afternoon.
The defeat at the hands of No. 4 Utah in late January has proven to be a turning point this season for UCLA. The Bruins have raised their level of performance in every meet afterwards – from their 196.800-point performance against the Cal Bears on Feb. 1, to their 197.000 against the Washington Huskies on Feb. 9, and now to their 197.075 score against the Cardinal Saturday.
Coach Valorie Kondos Field attributed the team’s continuous total score improvement to the attention to detail displayed in practice.
“We just make sure that we really delve into details and everything in training,” Kondos Field said. “They are doing it well, they are doing it confidently. So they can transform that in competition.”
Although the team outscored Stanford in total, it couldn’t get the upper hand in the second rotation, losing to the home team 49.425-49.125 on the uneven bars.
Kondos Field said that bars and beam are the Cardinal’s strongest events, and that the Bruins need to improve on bars to be able to compete with other top teams in the country. Strengthening the team on bars is also a focus of Kondos Field’s recruiting plan for next year’s squad, according to the coach.
Another reason why UCLA experienced difficulty on bars against Stanford was because of the absence of redshirt sophomore Christine Peng-Peng Lee, who was ruled out of the meet due to the flu.
Kondos Field said that her team needs to learn how to perform well without a key gymnast. She did however give praise to freshman JaNay Honest, who scored a 9.775 in what was only her third performance on the uneven bars in her young career.
Honest wasn’t the only freshman who pulled out a strong performance in the meet. Freshman Sonya Meraz, who won all-around in the meet against Washington last week, was able to set career-best scores for all three events she took part in. Meraz managed to score a 9.850 on both bars and beam, along with a 9.900 in the floor exercise.
Sophomore Hallie Mossett also further established her role as a regular contributor for UCLA, adding to the team’s total on bars with a score of 9.800.
“I felt very good about it,” Mossett said. “It wasn’t my best routine, but I did a good job to bring the energy I was working on in the gym to get back in the meet.”
Meanwhile, redshirt senior Samantha Peszek was still on her way to recovery from a calf muscle injury during the meet. Although Peszek was limited in her practice time due to the injury, she was able to top the scoring table on vault with a 9.900.
“Because my leg had been hurting a little bit, I haven’t been (practicing much) in practice or in warmup,” Peszek said. “So I was really (glad) I was able to make the change in the meet even without having more practices.”
Redshirt junior Sadiqua Bynum and junior Danusia Francis both carried over their recent strong performances against Cal and Washington into the Stanford meet, winning floor and beam, respectively. No gymnast from either team competed in all-around Saturday.