University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
NCAA Championship Blog - Event Finals
April 26, 2008 | Gymnastics
April 26, 2008
11:30 pm - The 2008 season is officially over, and the Bruins finished with two first-place and two second-place trophies. Tasha Schwikert closed out an amazing career with the 2008 NCAA all-around and uneven bars titles and finished a close runner-up to Georgia's Courtney McCool on floor exercise. Kristina Comforte added a second runner-up trophy to her collection, finishing second to Tasha on bars.
To quote Scott Tedmon (Christie Tedmon's dad) - "Now that's what I'm talkin' about!!!"
Speaking of Scott Tedmon, all of us Bruins want to thank the Bruin parents, supporters and fans for making the trip to Athens. Special thanks to the alumni parents who still support the team even after their daughters graduated. Scott, the Velascos and the Dubs, we know you're all after the Frummys!
Thanks for reading the NCAA blogs. Check back later in the week for all the pictures from this weekend. Huge thanks to our generous photographer, Jim Scieszinski, who provided us more photos than I had time to go through this weekend.
See you in 2009!
7:38 pm - Tasha wins her second NCAA title of the year and third individual title of her career, taking first place on uneven bars with a 9.9375. She nailed her routine, showing perfect form, nice handstands, an effortless Tkatchev and a stuck double layout dismount. It was one of the nicest dismounts she's done this year. Her score of 9.9375 put her in first place with 10 more to go. Comforte gave Tasha a run for her money with a gorgeous routine highlighted by a Shaposhnikova, piked Jaeger and stuck double layout dismount. She scored 9.9 and finished tied for second place. This is her second career runner-up finish at event finals. In 2006, she was runner-up on vault. Tasha's uneven bars win is her first event crown. She was runner-up on bars a year ago.
Anna had a shot at the title as well with her massive Tkatchev that drew gasps from the crowd, but on her double layout dismount, she bent at the waist to stick it and scored 9.8125.
Tasha has another shot at winning a third title this year, as she is competing 10th on floor exercise.
6:55 pm - The Bruins are wearing the new leotards they wore at Regionals - the navy leo with the periwinkle blue sparkly v-neck.
Vault is halfway done, and the Bruins are out of the running. The gymnasts have to do two different vaults or risk a one-point penalty (which Utah's Kyndal Robarts took). Unfortunately, most collegiate gymnasts don't train two vaults, including our two Bruin finalists. Kristina was short on her layout Pod, and Tasha could not hold onto the landing on her Yurchenko 1.5. But kudos to both for going for it. Both of their first vaults were good. Kristina got good power on her Yurchenko full but took a small hop back, and Tasha appeared to stick her Yurchenko full. Tasha's average was 9.5625, and Kristina averaged 9.45.
5:50 pm - The competitors have just finished warming up for the individual event finals. You can follow the scoring live HERE. Competing for the Bruins tonight are Kristina Comforte, Anna Li and Tasha Schwikert. Neither Comforte nor Schwikert have trained a second vault this year, but both were top-notch vaulters in their elite days. It looks like Comforte's going to do her layout Podkopayeva, which she hasn't trained since she pulled it out for the 2006 NCAA event finals. Tasha looks to be attempting a Yurchenko 1.5, which she hasn't done in competition since the 2004 Olympic Trials.
After finishing up on vault, Tasha did a run-through on floor and then moved to bars, along with Comforte and Anna. There are 18 competitors and three flights on bars. This may be a long night.
Earlier today, at the tournament banquet, the All-Americans were honored. Three Bruins earned a total of eight All-America honors - 4 for Tasha, 3 for Comforte and 1 for Anna. Tasha was also honored as the NCAA all-around champion and as a finalist for the AAI American Award. She was also honored by Georgia head coach Suzanne Yoculan, who, while accepting her NACGC/W Coach of the Year award, first wanted to congratulate and acknowledge Tasha for her all-around accomplishment.
One more thing before we start - in case you missed it, check out this column by Kurt Streeter in the LA Times about Val's friendship with Coach Wooden.
Players Mentioned
