UCLA gymnastics went into the NCAA championships knowing the odds of leaving with a title were against them. And after a season pockmarked with obstacles, namely injuries and illness, the team finished with the only thing its impairments would let them – a personal victory. The team’s placing was lower than it had hoped. UCLA […]
Category Archives: Gymnastics
UCLA gymnastics looks to flip the odds at NCAA championships
UCLA Gymnastics: Three Keys to NCAA Championship No. 111 1. Going 24 for 24 routines: The Bruins can’t afford a single mistake – even if the mistake doesn’t contribute to their team score, their play-not-to-lose mentality will sink them in the competition. When an athlete has already fallen and the Bruins’ safety net is gone, […]
UCLA gymnastics fine-tunes mental game before NCAAs
Gymnastics is a sport grounded in dazzling aerial displays and sharp, precise turns and leaps – physical feats that would impress even the most athletic of people. But hidden underneath the spectacle of skill and dance elements is the mental side of the sport not privy to the audience, something that the gymnast has to face every […]
Gymnastics’ Ellette Craddock back in starting rotation
Redshirt sophomore Ellette Craddock has had a wobbly career on balance beam. Two years ago, she competed in just one meet for UCLA gymnastics. Last year, she tore a tendon in her finger and had to sit out the season. But at the start of this year, she made her way onto the team’s competitive […]
UCLA gymnastics advances to NCAA finals
Barring an uncharacteristic meltdown in the last rotation of Saturday’s NCAA regional, No. 5 Utah had already all but locked up both first place and the first of two available bids for NCAA championships in two weeks. That left No. 8 UCLA and No. 17 Arkansas, separated by less than a third of a point […]
UCLA gymnastics fired up for NCAA regionals
Two weeks ago, UCLA gymnastics prepared for Pac-12 Championships riding a wave of momentum. The Bruins were coming off three consecutive meets in which they posted a team score of 197 or higher. Sophomore Danusia Francis had just earned her first-ever perfect 10 on beam and redshirt junior Samantha Peszek was in the middle of […]
Former gymnast overcomes injuries, finds success as coach
Kassidy Kozai needed surgery to reconstruct a torn medial collateral ligament and posterior cruciate ligament in her right knee three years prior to enrolling in college.