Losing its season opener wasn’t all that bad for the UCLA
women’s gymnastics team.
In front of a raucous crowd of 10,000 people, the No. 1 Bruins
fell to No. 5 Utah on Friday night by a score of 197.675-197.3 on
the Utes’ home floor.
Despite losing the meet, the defending national champion Bruins
(0-1) came away with something much more important ““ the
reassurance that this year’s squad is more than capable of
competing for another national title.
“We left this meet saying that we can win the national
championship,” coach Valorie Kondos Field said.
“We’re as good as last year.”
And that has to be a scary thought for the rest of the nation.
Boosting UCLA’s confidence for the upcoming season were the
strong showings of the freshmen trio consisting of sisters Tasha
and Jordan Schwikert and Lindsey Vanden Eykel, who all hit big
routines during the course of the hotly contested meet.
“It’s always a test competing against a strong team
like Utah, especially for our freshmen,” senior Kristen
Maloney said, “but they handled it well.”
“All three competed like seasoned veterans,” Kondos
Field added.
The first rotation of the night found UCLA on the bars, where
Tasha Schwikert and Vanden Eykel provided the team with two huge
scores of 9.925 en route to a solid opening team score of
49.35.
Meanwhile Utah flexed a little muscle of its own on vault. Led
by sophomore Rachel Tidd’s 9.95, no other Ute scored lower
than a 9.8 and by the end of the first rotation, Utah held a slim
0.1 lead.
The Bruins would claim the lead during the second rotation as
they took to the vault. Behind a career-high 9.85 from senior
Christie Tedmon and a 9.95 from Maloney, UCLA found itself with a
solid 49.5 vault score and a 98.55 total score.
With the Bruins on vault, Utah looked to increase their lead,
but could score no better than 49.35 behind Tidd’s 9.95.
But when UCLA went to the floor exercise for the meet’s
third rotation, the wheels seemingly came off. Hampered by
Tedmon’s 9.75 and sophomore Ashley Peckett’s 9.175, the
Bruins could score no higher than junior Kate Richardson’s
9.875 and wound up with a disappointing 49.075 event score.
“Their faces and body language shut down,” Kondos
Field said. “That was unacceptable.”
With the competition stumbling, Utah took the opportunity to
regain the lead for good on the beam exercise. Aided by freshman
Ashley Postell’s and sophomore Nicolle Ford’s
respective 9.925’s, the Utes posted a 49.275 beam score,
which brought their team total to 148.075.
Needing to pull out all the stops on the beam in order to win
the meet, UCLA fought hard during the fourth and final rotation.
Jordan Schwikert pulled out a solid 9.9 to keep the team in
contention, while Tasha Schwikert and Richardson added two
9.95’s to help the team finish with a 49.375 event score and
an impressive 197.3 final score.
Unfortunately for the Bruins, however, Utah finished the meet
with their best scoring event of the night on the floor. Senior
Gritt Hoffman supplied the Utes with a 9.925, while Postell and
senior Annabeth Eberle added two 9.95’s to seal the victory
with a 49.6 floor score and a 197.675 final score.
Though they came up on the short end in the final score, Kondos
Field was nevertheless proud of the Bruins’ effort.
“If there’s one thing that we came away with from
the competition it’s that we’re really a good
team,” Kondos Field said. “Still, the team’s a
little ticked off that it lost. They definitely want to come out
with a vengeance next time.”