April 15, 2000
BOISE, Idaho - A day after winning the NCAA team title, senior Lena Degteva (Mississauga, Ontario) and junior Mohini Bhardwaj (Cincinnati, OH) won NCAA Gymnastics individual event titles tonight in Boise, ID. Degteva captured her first NCAA title, capturing the balance beam crown, and Bhardwaj captured her first title, winning the uneven bars. This marks the third consecutive year UCLA has won two individual event titles.
Bhardwaj set a high standard as the second competitor on the balance beam with a 9.9 routine highlighted by a punch front mount, backhandspring-three layouts tumbling series and a double-back dismount. Degteva one-upped her, performing an extremely clean and fluid routine punctuated with a stuck double-back dismount routine to record a 9.913 in the fifth slot to surpass her teammate. Degteva sat and watched the six remaining competitors try to top her. Only Stanford's Katy Herbert came close, scoring a 9.863 to place third behind Bhardwaj.
Degteva became UCLA's third NCAA beam champion (second consecutive), joining 1989 champion Jill Andrews and 1999 co-champion Kiralee Hayashi.
"It's a very nice way to end my career," said Degteva. "I've been here four years and haven't won an individual title, but I've seen my teammates do it. I've dreamed of doing it myself, and it's really cool to do it in my last meet, my last chance."
As the second-to-last competitor of the evening on the bars, Bhardwaj scored a 9.95 to win UCLA's second NCAA bars title, following Heidi Moneymaker, the 1998 champion. Degteva tied for third with a 9.888.
"I'm ecstatic," proclaimed Bhardwaj, who finished the regular season as the nation's top-ranked gymnast on bars. "This is my third time at nationals and my third time in bar finals, and I've never won anything individually here. I came in the year after they won the team title in 1997, and I came in expecting to win it again, and we finally did this year. All of my dreams have come true. If this is all I get to have from my college experience, I'll take it."
The Bruins also found success on the vault. Defending vault champion Moneymaker placed fourth with an average of 9.8375, while freshman Onnie Willis and Bhardwaj tied for fifth with averages of 9.8065. Nebraska's Heather Brink, the all-around champion, won vault with two 9.95 scores.
Moneymaker was UCLA's lone floor competitor and had the misfortune of competing first. Moneymaker threw all her difficult tricks, including a full-in opening pass and a whip to immediate double back second pass. However, her score only merited a 9.875 and was eventually only good enough for a tie for fifth place with Kristen Sterner of Alabama. Georgia's Suzanne Sears won the event with a 9.95.
UCLA now has 13 NCAA individual titles, third-most amongst Division I schools.