NCAA Women’s Gymnastics : Third-Seeded Fullerton Hopes to Upset Utah and Arizona St.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. —  The Cal State Fullerton women’s gymnastics team hopes to surprise top-ranked Utah and second-ranked Arizona State in the NCAA championships at the University of Florida tonight.

When the season began, Titan Coach Lynn Rogers did not expect the team to qualify for the nationals. Two members had quit and a third, senior Roni Barrios, was thought to be lost for the season after knee surgery.

But Barrios, a three-time All-American on the uneven bars, returned and the Titans’ championship hopes got a lot better.

They enter tonight’s 10-team competition seeded third after earning the nation’s highest score in any regional, a 188.45 in the Western Regional at Corvallis, Ore., two weeks ago.

Fullerton won the national title in 1979 and had never finished lower than third before 1985’s fifth-place.

Junior Tami Elliott and senior Taunia Rogers are expected to do well in the individual all-around competition on Saturday.

Sixth-seeded UCLA, led by freshmen Tanya Service and Gigi Zosa, will have the youngest team in tonight’s competition. Service’s forte is the uneven bars, while Zosa, a former member of the Canadian Olympic team, is usually equally strong in all four events.

The Bruins did not qualify for nationals last season, but in 1984 they placed second to Utah by five-tenths of a point. Utah has won the national title for five straight years.