Inconsistencies in health and sporadic levels of performance have plagued the UCLA gymnastics team for the majority of the season.
These were defining characteristics in the team’s loss to Utah in January. Falls on bars and beam, gymnasts succumbing to illness and injury and a frail final lineup led to the Bruins’ downfall.
On Friday, No. 8 UCLA will compete against No. 6 Utah once again, alongside No. 7 University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Revenge and redemption are motivating factors for the Bruins as they travel five hours for the tri-meet.
“We know what (Utah is) capable of, and so we’re just trying to bring it and get some revenge and beat them,” said sophomore Danusia Francis.
“To win a meet like this where we’re all ranked so close will be a great confidence booster and show people that we’re not messing around, that we’re a contender.”
Francis, along with senior Olivia Courtney, was sick during the previous Utah meet. The two gymnasts are now healthy and ready to compete.
Courtney was named the Pac-12 gymnast of the week after winning the all-around competition against Arizona last Saturday and said she is refining her form in order to improve her scores as much as possible to maximize the team’s chances of winning.
Assistant coach Chris Waller said the gymnasts were working on maintaining motivation to exceed their current levels of progress after hitting their goal of earning a 197 team score at Arizona.
“The job is to exploit every possibility of improving and not resting on our laurels and going in and being better again this weekend,” Waller said.
While UCLA has two losses going into this weekend, Michigan and Utah have had dominant seasons, with both teams hitting 197 more than once during the season.
“Our strategy is to be the best at the end of the season,” Waller said. “Both of these teams came out and were extremely strong in January, so it’ll be interesting to see whether or not they have as much fire as they did a month and a half ago.”
The Bruins will have two top-ranked teams to contend with on Friday, one of which, the Utes. delivered the team its last loss. Friday will be an opportunity for UCLA to exhibit the improvements made since then.
“I think it’ll be exciting because our first meet against Utah wasn’t very good,” Courtney said. “Everybody’s very motivated (for redemption), and it just gets us that much more in the zone for Pac-12s because we’ll see them again in a few weeks.”