Gymnastics head to NCAA regionals
Bruins will battle rival Oregon State in
Corvallis to qualify for NCAA finals
By Esther Hui
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The UCLA vs. Oregon State women’s gymnastics rivalry is probably
the biggest in the West Region. Each team considers the other its
toughest competition for the conference crown, and for the past
eight years it has been either UCLA or Oregon State which has
earned the Pac-10 Championships team title.
Last year’s championships in Washington were no different, and
though Oregon State prevailed over the Bruins (194.825 to 193.850),
it took a school record.
"It felt good," Oregon State head coach Jim Turpin said of the
1994 team title. "Anytime you can beat a team as talented as UCLA.
I remember there were about 2,000 people there and about 1,000 of
them were from Oregon. So it was like having the home court
advantage, even though we were in Washington."
The Bruins retaliated at the West Regionals that year, beating
the Beavers (194.300-193.55) to earn an automatic qualification to
the NCAA championships. Though Oregon State eventually garnered one
of the seven wild card bids to nationals, the Beavers did not
qualify on to the Super-Six finals as UCLA did. UCLA went on to
place fifth.
Now both teams are preparing for the West Regionals to be held
tomorrow at Oregon State. The tables have turned from last year,
however.
It was UCLA which won the Pac-10 championship crown two weeks
ago with Oregon State placing fourth, and it was Bruin Leah Homma
who earned the Pac-10 gymnast of the year award.
While half of last year’s Oregon State team was made up of
seniors, including 1994 Pac-10 gymnast of the year Chari Knight,
whose high in the all-around was a 39.75 (out of 40), this year’s
Beavers are composed almost entirely of freshmen and
sophomores.
While the 1994 Bruins lost three gymnasts from their starting
lineup by the time the Pac-10 and West Regional competitions rolled
around (Liz Lahey and senior Treena Camacho to injuries, and Misty
Rosas who quit the team), this year’s team has managed to remain
relatively injury-free. Only senior Megan Fenton will be abstaining
from events in Oregon this weekend with a shoulder injury sustained
at the Pac-10s.
"This year UCLA has a lot more raw talent than we have," Turpin
said. "We’re a very young team, 80 percent freshman and sophomores.
We probably lost more power than any team in the country last year,
we lost four seniors who had earned collectively 11 All-American
titles, that’s a pretty big loss.
"I’m really pleased that we’ll have that home court advantage,
that’s really important when you have a young team, and we draw big
crowds for gymnastics here, we’re expecting 6,000 people for West
Regional."
Said UCLA head coach Valorie Kondos: "Oregon State is not as
strong as they have been the last few years. They have a handful of
good athletes who have become good college gymnasts. We have
athletes who have competed at a higher level and an international
level, and who thrive in higher pressure."
Nonetheless, with UCLA-Oregon State’s history of trading off
championships, and the fact that only one automatic qualification
to nationals rides on the outcome of tomorrow’s competition,
neither team will declare an emphatic guarantee.
"We can’t go guaranteeing a win," Kondos said. "(Oregon State)
loves to compete at home. If we miss, they can beat us."