April 22, 1999

SALT LAKE CITY - The second-seeded UCLA women's gymnastics team won the preliminary meet at the NCAA Championships today in Salt Lake City, UT with a final score of 196.425 and will compete in the Super Six Team Finals Friday night along with Alabama and Arizona State. The Bruins have qualified for every Super Six since its inception in 1993.

Junior Heidi Moneymaker (Santa Rosa, CA) ended the first preliminary session as the all-around leader with a score of 39.55. She placed first in the afternoon session on bars (9.95) and beam (9.875) and also qualified for Saturday's event finals on vault and floor. By qualifying for event finals on all four events, Moneymaker becomes the first Bruin to earn first-team All-America honors on each event in one season.

Moneymaker accomplished this despite spraining both ankles in practice on Friday. "It's amazing what adrenaline can do for you." she said. "It was a little tough on floor to go back and do the pass I hurt my ankles on."

Junior Lena Degteva (Mississauga, Ontario) placed third in the all-around in the afternoon session with a score of 39.375. Degteva earned first-team All-America acclaim and a spot in the event finals by placing first in Session 1 on vault (9.875) and fourth on bars (9.85). Her eighth-place score of 9.85 on floor gave her second-team honors on that event.

Senior Kiralee Hayashi (Kailua, HI) scored a 39.3 in the all-around. She qualified for event finals and earned first-team All-America honors on vault (9.85), beam (9.85) and floor (9.9).

Sophomore Mohini Bhardwaj (Cincinnati, OH) was right behind Hayashi with a 39.275. She earned first-team All-America acclaim on bars for the second consecutive year with a score of 9.9.

Senior Luisa Portocarrero (Guatemala City, Guatemala), who just this year began vaulting regularly for the Bruins, placed first on vault in the afternoon session with a 9.875 to qualify for event finals and earn first-team All-America honors. She also earned second-team honors on bars (9.825).

UCLA outscored its competitors on vault (49.225) and bars (49.225) and was second on beam (48.725) and floor (49.25).

"We had an okay meet," said Bruin head coach Valorie Kondos.

"Thursday is the hardest night. But I had my most stressful meet at Regionals. It's almost as nerve-racking trying to get into the Super Six. This team is so focused and confident. We didn't do as well as we could, but this is good. Our team is upset that it didn't do better. Anger is a good thing to take into tomorrow night."

RESULTS - SESSION 1

 TEAM
 1. UCLA 196.425
 2. Alabama 194.950
 3. ASU 194.525
 4. LSU 194.475
 5. Stanford 194.000
 6. West Virginia 191.850
 
 ALL-AROUND
 1. Heidi Moneymaker, UCLA 39.550
 2. Andree Pickens, Alabama 39.450
 3. Lena Degteva, UCLA 39.375
 4. Heidi Hornbeek, Arizona 39.350
 5. Kiralee Hayashi, UCLA 39.300
 
 VAULT
 1t. Lena Degteva, UCLA 9.875
 1t. Luisa Portocarrero, UCLA 9.875
 3t. Andree Pickens, Alabama 9.850
 3t. Gwen Spidle, Alabam 9.850
 3t. Shanyn MacEachern, LSU 9.850
 3t. Larissa Fontaine, Stanford 9.850
 3t. Lindsey Vagedes, Ohio St. 9.850
 3t. Kiralee Hayashi, UCLA 9.850
 3t. Heidi Moneymaker, UCLA 9.850
 
 BARS
 1. Heidi Moneymaker, UCLA 9.950
 2. Mohini Bhardwaj, UCLA 9.900
 3. Heidi Hornbeek, Arizona 9.875
 
 BEAM
 1t. Heidi Moneymaker, UCLA 9.875
 1t. Heidi Hornbeek, Arizona 9.875
 3t. Andree Pickens, Alabama 9.850
 3t. Lissy Smith, Alabama 9.850
 3t. Wendy Ellsberry, ASU 9.850
 3t. Elizabeth Reid, ASU 9.850
 3t. Colleen Barger, LSU 9.850
 3t. Stacey Wegener, LSU 9.850
 3t. Kiralee Hayashi, UCLA 9.850
 
 FLOOR
 1. Elizabeth McNabb, ASU 9.925
 2t. Andree Pickens, Alabama 9.900
 2t. Kiralee Hayashi, UCLA 9.900