GYMNASTICS: Bakken represents Huskies at national championship

For Husky gymnast Chelsea Bakken, the biggest meet of her career is really during its epilogue.

So many things have happened already. The NCAA gymnastics championship, which begins today in Salt Lake City, Utah and highlights the country's 12 top gymnastics programs, comes after the senior night festivities at Hec Edmundson Pavilion, where Bakken entered the arena on the arms of her parents, holding a bouquet of flowers.

It comes after a sprained ankle earlier in the season that limited Bakken's training time on vault, beam and floor and sidelined her for more than a month of competition in two events. It comes after that same ankle injury forced her to sit out the only Washington meet she's ever not competed in.

It also comes after the NCAA regional championships two weeks ago, where Bakken suspected she'd be competing in a Husky leotard for the last time. That night, the focus was on the team, which failed to advance to the NCAA Championships after placing fifth. To get to nationals, the Huskies would have had to knock off two top-10 ranked teams, Nebraska and Utah. It didn't happen.

The news that she'd be competing one more time didn't even come when all four events at regionals had been completed and the team knew it would not advance. That was when the Husky seniors realized they were finally done, Bakken said.

So when she was told she was one of the top two all-around gymnasts at the competition not to belong to a top-two team and thus granted a berth to the NCAA's, Bakken couldn't believe it.

"It was really crazy," she said. "Just making it to nationals is a huge accomplishment."

The senior will compete in her first and final NCAA gymnastics championships among teams aiming to qualify for Friday's team final. There, Georgia will look to defend its title against Florida, which has made a strong case for being the best team in the nation all season. UCLA, which has won the championship three times during the past 10 years, will be looking to reclaim its title, and host Utah will try to capitalize on home court advantage and its second-place finish in 2006.

Those who qualified for the competition as individuals, as Bakken did, will compete alone, without the cheers of teammates from the sidelines. Her mission today will be to qualify for an event final. The top eight gymnasts in each event from today's preliminary round advance to the event finals Saturday.

Although Bakken said she's disappointed not to have the team competing with her, she acknowledged that some of the pressure to do well for the team has come off. Her ankle is feeling much better, too. As for event finals, qualifying to one or more is definitely a goal.

"I'm not nervous at all," she said. "I'm just going to go out there and have fun and do my best. There's not really any pressure to make it. Even making nationals is a huge bonus."

Reach reporter Blythe Lawrence at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.