NCAA Women’s Gymnastics : UCLA’s Hamilton Wins Two Titles as Bruins Impress

UCLA’s Kim Hamilton won an unprecedented third consecutive individual championship in the floor exercise Saturday night when she tied Georgia’s Corrinne Wright for first place to highlight the final day of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. women’s gymnastics championships at Athens, Ga.

Hamilton, 20, a junior from Richmond, Va., also won the vault with an NCAA tournament record of 9.75 points as the Bruin women were impressive. Hamilton’s and Wright’s scores of 9.90 in the floor exercise also set a meet record.

UCLA, seeded No. 1 in the tournament, was upset in the team competition Friday night, losing to Georgia by five-hundredths of a point.

Lucy Wener of Georgia recorded the first 10.0 score ever given in the NCAA women’s gymnastics championships to win the uneven bar competition Saturday.

UCLA’s Jill Andrews, 20, a junior from Cupertino, Calif., tied Oregon State’s Jill Selig for first in the balance beam with a score of 9.80.

Andrews, the defending national vault champion, was second behind Hamilton at 9.725 in the vault.

Tanya Service, 22, a senior from St. Charles, Mo., in her last competition as a Bruin, tied for third in the vault at 9.675, tied for fourth in the uneven bars at 9.750 and tied for fourth in the floor at 9.78.

The Bruins’ Shawn McGinnis, 19, a junior from Anaheim Hills, tied for sixth in the floor exercise at 9.55.

Hamilton, who did not place in the vault last year, was satisfied with her performance Saturday.

“It felt really good,” Hamilton said in a news conference at Georgia Coliseum. “I had had problems coming into today. Yesterday (Friday) I didn’t stick of my vaults. I was having problems yesterday with that and it felt good to do well.”

Before the season, Hamilton decided to change her floor routine although she won two consecutive national titles.

“I thought I should do something new this year,” she said. “I wanted the challenge.”

Lisa Dolan of Cal State Fullerton placed eighth in the vault at 9.35, and eighth on beam at 9.15.