Gymnasts record several career highs

After a half-hour delay due to tornado warnings in the area, 10th-ranked UCLA (14-3) met three-time defending NCAA champion and top-ranked Georgia (8-2) in Athens, Ga., on Saturday.

UCLA was without redshirt freshman Brittani McCullough, who is out for the season after she ruptured her left Achilles tendon in the beginning of her floor routine at last week’s quad meet.

The Bulldogs came well prepared with seven All-Americans, including 2004 Olympic medalist Courtney McCool (also top-ranked in the nation on floor) and 2007 Southeastern Conference Gymnast of the Year Katie Heenan.

Though the Bruins lost 197.900 to 196.925, five UCLA gymnasts recorded career-high scores, and three had season-best performances. UCLA also went 6-for-6 on beam for the sixth time this season after discounting a fall, scoring a season-high 49.3 for the team in the event.

The Bruins saw a choppy start to the first rotation when Ariana Berlin hit her foot on the high bar during the bars event. She earned a 9.65 with a solid finish.

Jordan Schwikert also had some trouble in the form of an unstable handstand, which resulted in a 9.025 mark. Things picked up for UCLA when both Anna Li and Tasha Schwikert hit 9.9s, but two 9.95s on vault from Georgia’s Cassidy McComb and Tiffany Tolnay secured a lead for the Bulldogs at the end of the first rotation with a score of 49.550 to UCLA’s 49.025.

Berlin made up for her rough start with a season-high 9.875 on vault. Junior Melissa Chan followed that with another season best ““ a 9.80 in her first competitive vault since February 2006.

“I’m really proud of them,” head coach Valorie Kondos Field said. “We started out rough on bars, which we shouldn’t have, but we really picked it up after that once we put in a couple good athletes who hadn’t been in (the lineup) yet.”

Three career-high scores were set on the floor exercise in the third rotation. Freshman Mizuki Sato tied her career best with a 9.875, and sophomore Ashley Jenkins’s routine earned her a career-high 9.90. Jordan Schwikert also gave a solid performance, scoring her a career-high-tying 9.925. This smattering of career-high scores concentrated in one event led to a composite score of 49.275 on the floor ““ the Bruin’s second-highest team total in the event this year.

“You know, you do what you do in the gym every day, and it’s a great feeling to see your hard work paying off in competition,” Sato said.

Despite these triumphs, Georgia’s Grace Taylor hit a nearly flawless routine on beam that received a 9.975, and in effect maintained Georgia’s lead through the third rotation.

The beam saw the return of Kristina Comforte, who has been nursing a bone bruise to the right knee that had sidelined her for four meets. After coming back strong on bars against Utah and in the vault against Oregon State (earning scores of 9.825 and 9.90, respectively), in Comforte’s first return to the beam since her injury, she recorded a career-high-tying 9.90 in the event.

“It felt so good to be back competing in that event again,” Comforte said. “As soon as I got off the beam, I just couldn’t contain myself.”

Freshman Niki Tom had a career-high score of 9.85 on beam and the Bruins got a season-high-tying 9.90 from Tasha Schwikert. Amid the numerous soaring scores from the Bruins, Georgia’s McCool received a perfect 10 for her floor routine, accompanied by a 9.975 from Heenan and a 9.95 from Tolnay to secure the Bulldog victory.

UCLA will return to Athens in a month for the NCAA Championships where the Bruins will meet the Bulldogs once again. As the two teams that have combined for 10 of the last 11 NCAA titles, UCLA and Georgia will both have a lot on the line.

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