By Arlie Rahn
Arizona Daily Wildcat
It's time for the big tournament. And while this tournament might not be the hot topic in office pools, it still possesses the aura of excitement and majesty of that other one that happens every March.
That's right, it's the 1995 Pacific 10 Conference gymnastics championships tomorrow night at 7 in Tempe at the University Activity Center.
The Wildcats (12-4 overall, 2-2 in the Pac-10) are hoping to rebound from their last few meets and finally hit their best landings and performances in all of their events.
"We have to improve on our last few performances and not just hand the meet to someone else by falling off," said UA coach Jim Gault. "Basically, we have to hit our brains out."
The two teams the Wildcats will be gunning for are seventh-ranked UCLA (20-5) and No. 11 Arizona State (10-4). The Bruins traveled to Tucson earlier in the season and sneaked past Arizona 195.425 to 192.675. The Sun Devils defeated a banged-up Arizona team in Tempe last week 193.675 to 192.200.
ASU is the hot team in the tournament Ä it captured its last three meets with scores all above 193. Senior Donna Lister, who mid
received a perfect 10 on the balance beam two weeks ago, has been the team leader.
"While UCLA is the highest-ranked team in the tournament, ASU has been performing very well," Gault said. "So you never know what can happen."
The Wildcats have been led by redshirt freshman Tenli Poggemeyer and junior Darci Wambsgans. In the ASU meet, Wambsgans placed second in the all-around and Poggemeyer finished second on the bars with a score of 9.875.
Wambsgans feels that if the Wildcats perform as well as they have practiced, they could leave with the title.
"Although we've had our troubles on the beam in the last few meets, in practice we have been pretty solid," Wambsgans said. "I feel that if we can perform as well on beam in a meet as we do in practice, we have one of the top five teams in the nation."
Gault also reflects Wambsgans' ideas about practice.
"We've already won the meet in practice," Gault said. "We just have to go out there and hope we can hit a three-pointer at the buzzer."