Monday, March 31, 1997
W. GYMNASTICS:
UCLA wins narrowly, led by all-around winner HommaBy Mark Dittmer
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
UCLA is once again the Pac-10 champion. After finishing a disappointing fourth in last season's Pac-10 championships, UCLA regained the conference title with its performance on March 23 in Tucson.
The Bruins' overall score of 196.550 was enough to edge Stanford by two tenths of a point. Washington finished third with a final score of 196.025.
Leah Homma led the Bruins, winning the individual all-around with a score of 39.725 including a perfect 10 on the bars, the only perfect score of the championships. Homma also tied the second-best scores of the day on both the vault and the beam, scoring 9.925 on both events.
Tiffany Simpson of Washington finished second on the all-around with a score of 39.625. Two other UCLA players participated in all events: Deborah Mink scored 39.325 points, good for seventh place, and Kiralee Hayashi's score of 39.225 earned her an 11th-place finish.
UCLA also got impressive efforts from other gymnasts who only performed in three or less of the four events.
Amy Smith tied for first overall in the floor exercise with a 9.9 and she scored a 9.825 on the vault. Stella Umeh tied for second in the bars the only event she competed in at the Pac-10s with a 9.975. She finished behind only teammate Homma in the event.
Last year at the Pac-10s, UCLA suffered three falls on beam in the first rotation. Their fourth-place finish last year was their worst ever.
But what hurt the Bruins worst last year was their salvation this year. In fact, this year the beam was the only event UCLA won outright; they finished with a score of 49.275 on the beam. After Homma's 9.925 on the beam, Hayashi earned a 9.9, Lena Degetva and Mink scored 9.85s, and Susie Erickson scored 9.75 in her only event of the day.