Having outscored its opponents two meets in a row, the UCLA gymnastics team now faces its biggest rival, Utah.
Bruin gymnasts will travel to Salt Lake City Friday for their second road meet of the season, this time against the Utes.
As of Monday, UCLA ranks No. 8, while Utah ranks No. 4.
The two schools are the top-two gymnastics teams in the Pac-12 conference, not only in terms of current rankings, but also historical results. The two teams have collected a total of 15 NCAA championships since 1982, six of which were won by UCLA. Although Utah has three more gymnastics national championships than UCLA, they haven’t claimed an NCAA title since 1995.
“I think that our schools have a good, healthy Pac-12 rivalry,” said redshirt senior Samantha Peszek.
The Utes lead the all-time results between the two schools with 26-8, placing higher four times out of five last season.
The results of Utah’s first two meets this season do not play to UCLA’s advantage, either. The Utes scored a 196.900 and a 196.675 in two non-Pac-12 meets, while the Bruins are currently struggling to cross the 196 score line.
However, coach Valorie Kondos Field stresses that the opponent is not a concern for the team.
“We’re really not concerned about them. We’re a 197 team and we need to go out and prove it,” Kondos Field said. “We are one or two skills away from being that 197 team. The mental cues are what we’re working on with the mistakes that we made.”
Negative thought, according to Kondos Field, is what leads to mistakes.
“The psychology of the sport is that when you tell yourself something negative to focus on, you’ll achieve that,” Kondos Field said. “For example, on the beam, when they say ‘don’t fall, don’t fall, don’t fall’. They may not fall, but they’re gonna wobble a little over the place.”
Reflecting on the fall from the balance beam in the season opener, junior Danusia Francis is now able to identify what went wrong during the routine.
“It wasn’t like a physical problem that I can’t do it or anything. I just had that rush,” Francis said. “I just need to keep my focus in the moment of the skill rather than rush it.”
The upcoming meet also involves a rivalry on an individual level. The star on the Utah team, senior Georgia Dabritz, has just been awarded the Pac-12 “Gymnast of the Week” honor. Dabritz topped the national all-around rankings with an average score of 39.60, which is trailed by none other than UCLA’s Olympic silver medalist Peszek who has an average of 39.55.
“We were both at the championship together. She’s one heck of a competitor,” Peszek said, “I know that on an individual level, I need to bring my A-game, just as I’m sure she will too.”
Kondos Field said she looks forward to the competition on an individual level, but is confident that Peszek will use her personal achievement to contribute to the team as a whole.
“Sam Peszek can go out and win every meet. And I guarantee you that’s what she’s thinking about too,” Kondos Field said. “She knows that if she wins every meet, she’ll help her team win. So they got Georgia Dabritz, we got Sam Peszek.”