If anyone has a theory about a relationship between the distance a team travels to a tournament and its performance at that tournament, Saturday's UCLA Invitational could be of interest.
The scenario didn't work in favor of the Michigan women's gymnastics team, which finished third at the tournament.
The closer the team was to Los Angeles, the better the team performed. UCLA - obviously the closest team - prevailed, with a team effort of 195.400 points. This was the Bruins' eighth-consecutive victory as hosts of the invitational.
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UCLA's intrastate rival, No. 12 Stanford, took second place with a score of 194.300. The Cardinal stayed unbeaten versus the Wolverines, after winning all four of their meets against Michigan.
The eighth-ranked Wolverines finished a distant third with 192.600 points, beating only Cornell, which struggled to a last-place finish with 178.125 points.
Cornell - located in Ithaca, N.Y., a good 500 miles east of Ann Arbor - had the longest flight to the tournament.
It was a frustrating showing for Michigan because the Wolverines encountered difficulties beyond their control.
Sophomore Kate Nellan ruptured her Achilles tendon early in the competition, and the team was never able to rebound.
"Emotionally, every one of us hit the bottom. It's hard to pick yourself up after seeing something like that happen," Michigan coach Bev Plocki said.
The distraction of seeing Nellan suffer such a terrible injury troubled the team for the remainder of the day.
"Katie is a very, very important part of our team," Plocki said. "Everyone felt absolutely horrible, and it's very dangerous to compete if you're distracted."
Michigan also had to overcome jetlag. Considering the Wolverines' third-place performance, the time-zone discrepancy couldn't have helped. But Plocki didn't rationalize Michigan's loss.
"I don't like to make excuses," Plocki said. "We had enough time to overcome" the jet-lag.
The conservative scoring of the judges proved to be even more frustrating for the Wolverines.
"When we started out on the balance beam, it was evident that the scoring was very different and very, very tight," Plocki said. "When you feel you've given one of the best performances, and you get one of the worst scores, it is very discouraging."
Despite the stingy scoring, junior Nikki Peters and freshman Christine Michaud tied for third on the uneven bars with a score of 9.900.
Michaud excels on the vault - she's ranked No. 9 in the Central Region and has a season average of 9.745.
02-10-98
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