Feb. 25, 2002

Santa Barbara, Calif.

After blowing two chances to avenge early season losses this past weekend the Gauchos hopes for a team place in the national championships looked very dim. But with a new week new hope arouse, as Santa Barbara (#13) actually moved up three spots in the rankings and are now battling Nebraska for the 12th and final championship spot.

Santa Barbara headed south to the campus of UCLA Thursday night taking on #2 Illinois, #7 Cal, and #11 Stanford in the Peter Vidmar Invitational. The quad meet was a preview to the men's home opener, Saturday in Rob Gym. Unfortunately the preview, which was essentially a home meet for UCSB, didn't produce the home cookin' they were looking for.

"We don't worry about any other team, because we don't have direct confrontations with other teams like in basketball," said Head Coach Mircea Badulescu, "all we worry about is ourselves, and our routines... wins and losses do not matter in gymnastics, the rankings and final scores do."

The Fighting Illini took home first place in the team competition with a score of 213.200, followed by Cal (209.400), Stanford (205.175) and UCSB who posted a solid score of 201.300.

"This should be the best team in Gaucho history," said Badulescu, "All we need to do is keep improving our team scores from meet to meet and we'll achieve our goal of a top 12 ranking."

The Gauchos were led by the strong performances of Senior Michael Kelley and Sophomore Andre Badilla, who tied for third on the vault with team high scores of 9.200.

"We really stuck our vaults," said Kelley, "unfortunately we had some mistakes on our other routines and couldn't beat out Stanford, whom we feel we should beat."

The season long see-saw battle for team high in the individual all-around was again a very close finish as Junior Geoffrey Howell claimed the team crown. Howell's score of 50.550 landed him in 5th place for the meet and was just enough to hold of Smith (48.850) and Kelley (48.650).

On Saturday night the Gauchos took to the floor of Rob. Gym for the first time this season. With a larger than expected crowd on hand, Santa Barbara was clearly motivated and improved their team score from two nights prior by more than two points (203.700).

The final team standings were again the same as #2 ranked Illinios finished first, scoring (213.625), followed by Cal (212.000), Stanford (206.675) and UCSB.

'"We all just need to put it together, there was no excuses for us this weekend," said Kelley, "We should have beat Stanford because this is the equipment we work on everyday, we had our opportunity and we didn't capitalize."

Kelley again led UCSB, turning in a team high score of 9.300 and taking home a second place finish. Howell finished just behind Kelley with another solid score of 9.100. The news wasn't all good as Kelley removed himself from the all-around competition prior to their final rotation on the high bar, due a muscle strain near his shoulder.

'Junior Stephen Smith placed sixth in the individual all-around competition with a season high score of 50.950, to round out a solid meet for the Gauchos.

' "We have six individual gymnasts who are either already qualified for the national championships, or very close," said Badulescu, "but that is not my concern, I want my entire team in the competition because I know we are good enough, we are only a few points away."

Team Scores 1. Illinois, 213.625; 2. Cal, 212.000; 3. Stanford, 206.675; 4. UCSB, 203.700.