With less than a month remaining until Pac-10 Championships, the
UCLA gymnastics squad will host its final home meet this weekend as
Stanford and San Jose State visit Pauley Pavilion on Sunday.
All eyes will be on senior Kate Richardson as she says farewell
after four illustrious years as a Bruin.
“It’s so weird to think about it. I don’t
really know how to approach it. I’m happy I’ve done as
much as I can in my four years and it’s going to be nice to
soak it in one last time,” Richardson said.
Richardson has been the heart and soul of the team for the past
four years, leading the team to back-to-back NCAA team titles in
2003 and 2004. She won two individual NCAA titles in 2003 on the
beam and the uneven bars. She has also racked up nine perfect 10.0s
as a Bruin and is a 10-time All-American.
In 2004, she became only the second female collegiate gymnast to
ever compete in the Olympics as she competed for Team Canada. She
went on to become the first woman in Canadian history to qualify
for the floor finals, where she placed seventh.
“She’s one of those very special people that comes
into your life, not just as an athlete. In her four years, she has
cut out a niche for herself at UCLA athletics like no other athlete
ever has and it’s going to be hard on Sunday for me,”
UCLA coach Valorie Kondos Field said.
The ultimate tribute to Richardson, though, will be a final
victory.
Coming off of last week’s dismal performance, the Bruins
know that they need to turn things around quickly before the season
ends ““ injuries or not.
Against Arizona, UCLA fell three times on bars and dug
themselves a hole that proved too big to overcome. Mistakes like
that will prove costly as the team gets set to compete for the
national championship and they all know they have to fix things
now.
“Last weekend was one of the toughest competitions I have
been a part of,” Kondos Field said. “After six meets in
four weekends, we were just exhausted. But now with Melissa (Chan)
and Jordan (Schwikert) back, the sun I think is starting to finally
rise for us.”
UCLA should get help from the return of Chan, who missed the
last three meets with a calf injury. There was more good news for
the team this week as defending all-around NCAA Champion Tasha
Schwikert was cleared to start training skills. The team hopes to
have her back by championship season.
“After a meet like (that against Arizona), you have
nowhere to go but up. Everyone is fired up to go and we all want to
come out, fix our mistakes and redeem ourselves,” Richardson
said.