GYMNASTICS NCAA WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS : Andrews Vaults UCLA Into the Running

The consensus about UCLA gymnast Jill Andrews is that she does not possess exceptional talent.

How then did the 5-foot-2 senior win the all-around competition in nine of the 11 meets she competed in this season to become the Pacific 10 Conference’s gymnast of the year?

How, during this month’s NCAA West Regional, did she win the vault and beam events, tie for first in the floor exercise and win the all-around competition by scoring a career-best 39.325 points--with a sore elbow and a cold, yet?

How did this athlete, who is not considered gifted, propel UCLA, as champion of the West, into this weekend’s 12-team national championships at Corvallis, Ore., as the No. 4-seeded team?

And could someone with less-than-superior talent be named the nation’s No. 1 all-around competitor going into tonight’s competition?

Apparently so.

“Where she is right now far exceeds any expectations anyone could have had of her,” UCLA Coach Jerry Tomlinson said. “Everything Jill gets--and where she is--is because of her work ethic. She practices over and over and over again with a very determined intensity and she has accomplished quite a bit.”

Jim Turpin, coach of No. 9-seeded Oregon State, who coached Andrews on the club level from the time she was about 4 until she left her home in Cupertino to attend UCLA, concurs with Tomlinson.

“She’s not the most gifted athlete, but she’s one of the very hardest workers, if not the hardest worker, that you can find,” Turpin said. “And her intensity and ability to concentrate is second to none. She is the most consistent athlete I ever coached.”

Andrews laughed when told of these comments, then sighed and admitted: “There’s definitely a lot more people that have been gifted in the sport more than I have. Things have come easier for them. I’ve had to work to get where I am.”

Where is she?

On the verge of becoming a national champion. The team and all-around national champions will be decided tonight. Individual competition is scheduled for Saturday night.

Andrews, adept in all events but particularly strong on the vault, will be up against last year’s all-around champion, Corrine Wright of No. 3-seeded Georgia, Joy Selig of Oregon State and Missy Marlow of No. 1-seeded Utah.

On her chances of winning the all-around, Tomlinson would only say that Andrews is better than she has ever been. Last season, she was co-champion on the beam, second on the vault and tied for fourth in the all-around.

Turpin likes Andrews’ chances better than those of Selig, going so far as to insist that Andrews will become the all-around champion.

Andrews will only say: “I’m just excited to go out with a bang and enjoying my last meet.”

It’s hard to believe that Andrews enjoys any of the meets in which she competes. She undergoes a metamorphosis before each competition. Gone are the pleasant smile, the gleam in her eyes. Instead, she stares intensely as she runs through each routine in her mind. Her tiny frame tightens as she becomes oblivious to everything around her.

This discipline, Turpin said, is a direct result of Andrews’ upbringing and sets her apart from other gymnasts.

Turpin remembered coaching Andrews on the Class 3 club level when she was in sixth grade, and said that her father, a former Marine who now owns a chain of office supply stores in Northern California, once took Andrews out of gymnastics for two weeks because she didn’t make her bed.

“I guess he did,” Andrews tried to remember. “I was disciplined all the time. I got grounded for everything . . . yeah, I was always grounded. I’ve been taught to work hard.”

That paid off early.

While Turpin concentrated on coaching the Class 1 team, his assistant in charge of the Class 3 gymnasts was so impressed with Andrews, he suggested that she skip Class 2 and move directly to Class 1, a move Turpin reluctantly made.

“She spent a year with our team and was just in over her head,” Turpin said. “I don’t even think we put her into many meets. At the end of that year, I told her I wanted to move her back down to Class 2 and give her some seasoning, and I did that--much to her dismay.

“One week later, she was back on the (Class 1) team. There was no way you were going to tell her she couldn’t do it.”

Andrews went through Class 1 season without a fall and made it to the U.S. Gymnastics Federation’s national championships, where she placed 13th in the all-around. She scored between 8.8. and 8.9 on every compulsory and optional event.

“She was not outstanding, but she was consistent on everything,” Turpin said.

The next year, Andrews won the all-around competition and bars event in the Class 1 nationals.

Several years later, the communications major with a 3.4 grade-point average has been put in the position of being a team leader--the sole senior on a squad that has lost seniors Kim Hamilton and Shawn McGinnis, both considered contenders for national championships who sprained ligaments in their feet.

“With the other two hurt, (Andrews) kind of took on a role,” said freshman Carol Ulrich, who was also propelled into a key role because of the early-season injuries to Hamilton and McGinnis. “She’s had to deal with the whole team coming together. She’s leading us, and it’s great.”

Ulrich, ranked No. 12 in the all-around, gives much of the credit to Andrews for her success and said the rest of the team should do the same if the Bruins are able to overcome conservative but disciplined Utah, No. 2-seeded Alabama and high-risk Georgia to become national champions.

“She’s such a hard worker that it motivates everyone,” Ulrich said. “Even when you’re having bad days, she’s always working so hard. She’s such a leader that you just want to really follow what she’s doing.”

Tomlinson said: “Jill has always been a silent leader because of her prowess in the gym.”

Too bad, she has so little talent.