The UCLA gymnastics team cannot take part in the spirit of a crosstown rivalry because the University of Southern California does not have a gymnastics team. So the team instead has a cross-state rivalry with Stanford.
The Bruins will meet the Cardinal Saturday night in Pauley Pavilion. In the past, the Cardinal has served as a rival to the Bruins both in performing and recruiting.
Coach Valorie Kondos Field said Stanford recruits a lot of the same gymnasts and previously stood as UCLA’s top rival before Utah entered the then-Pac-10 in 2010.
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for the gymnastics they do, and they get great athletes,” Kondos Field said. “They have a very strong, well-constructed program, so it’ll be a great match.”
While the match is predicted to be an exciting one, UCLA gymnasts are still recovering from the wear and tear of the season at its midway point.
Sophomore Danusia Francis will return on Saturday to compete for the Bruins after abstaining from training for two weeks while recovering from a viral infection.
Francis said she is feeling a lot better, and while she is still experiencing some fatigue, she’s looking forward to competing again.
“(I’ve) been missing out the last few weeks, so just being back will be fun,” Francis said.
Viruses are not the only malady the team is battling. Freshman Hallie Mossett and seniors Sydney Sawa and Olivia Courtney are also experiencing fatigue after training and competing heavily during this season.
“We’re trying to have them work on details in here without fatiguing them because if they can come in fresh Saturday, they’re going to do that much better,” Kondos Field said.
The gymnasts have been monitoring their turns and using tactics such as visualization, during which they envision each step of their routine without physically performing those skills, in order to maximize their time in the gym without having to put too much stress on their bodies.
While working on staying healthy is a major focus for the team, just as important is the refining of individual skills in order to maximize points during meets.
“We all have individual goals that we made for ourselves that we want to improve on,” Courtney said. “We always have a few great routines, but we just want to put them all together at one time so we can create our big score because we know we can all do it.”