UCLA, Oregon State Advance to Finals

There are a couple of things truly scary about the UCLA women’s gymnastics team.

One thing is the Bruins’ score of 197.775 at the NCAA West Regional Saturday night was only their third-highest mark of the season. That outdistanced Oregon State by a 3.7-point margin as the Bruins qualified for the national championships.

The other thing about the defending NCAA champions is they know they are capable of much better.

“There were some little things that could have been fixed,” senior Mohini Bhardwaj said. “We had a couple of falls there, but all it did was make us more determined not to make mistakes.”

Bhardwaj led a Bruin team that got over the disappointment of finishing second to Stanford last week in the Pacific 10 championship meet. The senior defended her regional titles in the all-around, balance beam and uneven parallel bars and also won the floor exercise.

She lit up the Pauley Pavilion crowd of 4,129 with a near-perfect 9.975 routine on the bars. Bhardwaj’s 39.775 score in the all-around edged teammates Yvonne Tousek and Onnie Willis.

Her performance only added to a stellar season in which she earned Pac-10 and West Regional gymnast of the year honors.

“I’ll have [U.S.] nationals to look forward to after the season and that’s where I’ll focus on what I do as an individual,” Bhardwaj said. “Right now, whatever I do individually is a secondary goal. I know that if I do well, I’m helping my team do well.”

Oregon State’s 194.075 score enabled it to grab the second West berth to the 12-team NCAA championships, which are April 19-21 at Athens, Ga. But none of the five opponents Saturday could keep up with the top-ranked Bruins.

UCLA swept the individual events with Willis, Tousek and Kristin Parker tying for first in first in the vault with a 9.925.

“I was hoping Pac-10s would be a wake-up call for us,” UCLA Coach Valorie Kondos Field said. “I think we definitely picked up our intensity.”