NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Meet : Alabama Wins Team Title; UCLA Finishes 3rd

UCLA had already taken its turn and was in the stands at Jon Huntsman Center, watching the top-seeded women’s gymnastic teams in the country take the floor.

The Bruins, seeded No. 7 in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. championships at the University of Utah Friday, competed in the afternoon session with the six bottom-seeded teams. And even though the Bruins earned enough points to have beaten last year’s first-place winner, they sat in the stands and watched Alabama win the title and Utah place second. UCLA was third.

Alabama finished with a score of 190.05; Utah had 189.50, and UCLA wound up with 188.90.

“I guess it was just our night,” Alabama Coach Sarah Patterson said. “UCLA gave us all a scare. We didn’t watch them perform, we just stayed as a team and kept to ourselves before the competition. This is the tightest competition we have ever been in.

“I think that the days of a dynasty in this sport are over. Each of us keeps pushing each other to be better. But this has been our year.”

Alabama was the No. 1-seeded team, after winning its first Southeastern Conference title this season and its fifth Central Regional title.

“Alabama hasn’t had a national championship since its football team did it in 1979--so I’m excited,” Patterson said.

After two events, Alabama was slightly ahead of UCLA, with Utah in third place. The turning point was Alabama’s performance on the beam, where Alabama took a .95 lead over UCLA.

“It was the best beam performance we had all year. Utah was off the floor (they had a bye), and that was a key.”

Patterson was referring to the home crowd of 6,109, which never stopped cheering for the Utah team.

No team to perform in the first group has ever won the national title, a point everyone was well aware of. Still, it didn’t stop UCLA from gaining the attention of the media and other teams, who came early throughout the week to watch UCLA practice.

“We did our best, and I’m proud of our kids,” UCLA Coach Jerry Tomlinson said. “I think the scoring was fair, and though obviously I wish we could have won, what matters was that we were a team. Not the final score.”

In the all-around competition, UCLA’s Jill Andrews placed second (38.20) and Kim Hamilton third. Kelly Garrison-Steve of Oklahoma, won the all-around title for the second straight year and set an NCAA record with a score of 38.90. The previous record of 38.20 was set in 1986 by Penney Hauschild of Alabama and Jackie Brummer of Arizona State.

Four Bruins qualified for tonight’s individual competition. Andrews will compete in the floor exercise and vault, Hamilton in the floor exercise and bars, Rene Kelly in the floor exercise and Amy Lucina in the vault.

The final competition, which begins at 7 p.m., will conclude the meet.