If there’s ever a time to peak in the season, this just might be it.
UCLA gymnastics travelled to the St. John Arena in Columbus, Ohio to compete for one of two spots in the NCAA women’s gymnastics championships offered at the NCAA Columbus Regional. With a first-place finish, it managed that and a lot more.
The No. 7 Bruins finished the meet with a season second-best score of 197.500, but another of the team’s achievements that wasn’t directly shown on the scoreboard was its consistency – namely how the gymnasts managed to hit all 24 routines on Saturday.
“It wasn’t really surprising because this is how they’ve been training all season and they were prepared to do this,” said coach Valorie Kondos Field.
Redshirt senior Samantha Peszek said UCLA’s gymnasts were able to build off of one another’s successes at the regional, which helped them perform to the best of their abilities as a team.
“The fact that everyone else was having a really great day (meant) I could do my best as well,” Peszek said. “It was really cool for the whole team culture to keep going from that.”
In addition to achieving its goal of punching a ticket to the national championship at Fort Worth, Texas, UCLA also managed to rake in the individual awards at the regional.
Peszek’s score of 39.675 ranked top among the all-round competitors, while her score of 9.950 on balance beam was tied for the highest score on that apparatus. Junior Danusia Francis matched Peszek’s 9.950 beam score to share the apparatus accolade with Peszek.
The highlight of the night, however was the performance by redshirt sophomore Christine Peng-Peng Lee, who managed to sweep the individual awards in all three apparatuses she competed in.
Lee was the third Bruin to earn a 9.950 with her beam routine, but complemented that score with a meet-high 9.925 on uneven bars and putting the exclamation mark on her meet by scoring a career and meet high of 9.925 on the Bruins final rotation, vault.
“I don’t know (whether) to focus on the fact that I won all three, or more that our team did really well and we all supported each other,” Lee said.
With qualifications officially in the bag, UCLA will now have slightly less than two weeks before making the trip to Texas for the home stretch on April 17.
With contributing reports by Boer Fu, Bruin Sports contributor.
This article forgot to mention that Sam Peszek also won floor exercise with a 9.925. Go Bruins!