Bulldog gymnasts entered NCAAs ready for combat
By Esther Hui
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
When the Georgia women gymnasts marched out onto the floor last
Friday night in Athens, Ga., for the Super Six team finals of the
NCAA Championships, they looked unalarmingly like they were
marching out to battle.
The 8,000 people in the Georgia Coliseum, many of whom were
bedecked completely in red, gave the Lady Bulldogs a standing
ovation, with a war cry of screams and barks which could chill
rival forces to the bone.
The Georgia gymnasts even did their own variation on the goose
step march, with chins held high and legs kicked up past their hips
with each step forward. When the gymnasts would sit down while
waiting their turn on an apparatus during warmup, Georgia head
coach Suzanne Yoculan would move quickly up and down the line,
shooing them up back onto their feet so as not to allow any
criticism as to the team’s dedication toward victory.
Women’s gymnastics back East is just a different sport than it
is in California, from the way the gymnasts salute the judges, to
the leotards that each team wears. The Lady Bulldogs wore red
crushed velvet with glitter, Utah hot pink and black with
multicolored sequins  showmanship and intimidation is the
name of the game, and good gymnastics is hopefully there to back it
up.
It reminds one of the highly competitive ballroom dancing
circuit depicted in the movie "Strictly Ballroom." The costumes are
gaudy and the egos large, but the rules which govern the judging
are so strict that no improvisation is allowed.
As for modern day eastern women’s gymnastics teams, the gymnasts
are usually outfitted in outrageous and colorful leotards, but
underneath the exuberance are eight or so gymnasts who operate much
like a militia.
On the last event of the team finals, an upset looked
inevitable. Georgia had been top-ranked and the heavy favorites
coming into the meet, but with no major errors the entire night,
the Utes were the leaders. The Lady Bulldogs, who were on bars, had
an outside chance of claiming the title, but they needed to hit at
least five of their six routines.
Their first gymnast up fell on her mount, and there was no more
room for error. The second gymnast finished with no mistakes,
sticking a double tuck dismount to cheers from the crowd. The third
gymnast up missed her hands on a Tkatchev release move and tumbled
to the mats. Exasperation and fear of a possible defeat played
across Yoculan’s face. For all intents and purposes, the meet was
over for Georgia.
The next two gymnasts hit solidly, and with no chance left of
victory, the last gymnast, defending national uneven bars champion
Lori Strong, stepped up. After wiping the tears away, she chalked
up her grips, readied for her mount and then attacked the bars with
a vengeance. Mid-routine she threw a combination of a hop full over
the high bar, Tkatchev, to a 1 1/2 twist over the low bar (a move
named "the Strong" after her), and then stuck a double layout
dismount cold.
The crowd went wild, its volume overwhelming. As her teammates
surrounded her, Strong held her finishing position, head held high
and then without smiling walked off the mat and picked up her
sweats. The judges flashed a 9.95.
Here was a gymnast who had performed a brilliant routine, which,
excepting a slight break in form toward the end might have scored a
perfect mark, but who had gotten no joy from the experience.
Veterans are probably not content with victories in battles when
the war itself was lost, but should gymnastics really be compared
to combat?
At the press conference following the meet, one reporter asked
Utah head coach Greg Marsden how he had won his ninth NCAA title,
and Marsden replied that the team’s philosophy was never to aim for
the national championship. The team’s only goal was to perform its
best at each meet  the NCAA Championships happened to be the
last meet of the season.
Yoculan told one reporter that the unique thing about collegiate
gymnastics was that you trained all year for one night, the NCAA
Super Six.
"I can’t explain what happened," Yoculan said after Georgia
finished fifth in the team finals. "Maybe I put too much pressure
on them. Maybe it was the (home) crowd. Maybe they put it on
themselves. But we’ve got a year to figure it out."
The NCAA Championships will be held in Alabama next year, and
Georgia will have a shot at redemption away from the home crowds,
while Utah will aim for its fourth consecutive title. After
finishing fourth, the UCLA women will probably head to the meet as
underdogs. With devastation in store for teams who set only one
goal and then fail, perhaps not being expected to win isn’t so
bad.