Keswick, Waller Lead the Way : Olympic trials: UCLA gymnasts finish 1-2 in men’s competition, ahead of national champion Roethlisberger.

BALTIMORE — For the past four years, UCLA’s Scott Keswick and Chris Waller have worked out together, at times lived together and even hung out together on weekends.

Now, they can hang out in Barcelona.

Throughout the countless hours they have spent pushing each other in the gym and competing with and against each other in gymnastic competitions, Keswick and Waller shared a common goal: to make the Olympic team. At the Baltimore Arena on Saturday night, these best friends not only made the U.S. team but proved to be the best gymnasts in the country by finishing 1-2 in the Olympic trials.

“It’s a credit to our coaches and to our program at UCLA,” said Keswick, 22, of Las Vegas, who hit every routine to finish first with 116.022 points.

“We have an international style of gymnastics and sometimes it hurts us in NCAA competitions because we throw bigger tricks, but last year we had three guys (from UCLA) on the world championship team. It’s not good enough for us just to be competitive nationally.”

Waller, 23, of Mt. Prospect, Ill., entered Saturday’s optional competition in second place behind Keswick, dropped to third briefly but moved up with a strong performance on the high bar with a 9.95, his final event. He finished at 115.200.

“I kept the pressure off by concentrating on winning the meet rather than making the team, but when Scott kept getting farther and farther ahead of me I started getting mad and that helped,” Waller said.

“Now that I made the team, I don’t want to let up at all. We’re not going to stop here. We want to win medals. We want to kick butt.”

Keswick beat third place and national champion John Roethlisberger, 21, of the University of Minnesota by 1.044, a sizable amount in this sport. But from Roethlisberger on down, the competition was close. Finishing fourth was Jair Lynch, 20, who is from Washington, D.C., but attends Stanford (114.854); followed by Trent Dimas, 21 of Albuquerque, N.M. (114.428) and 1988 Olympian Dominick Minicucci, 23 of Staten Island, N.Y., who attends Temple University (114.394).

But nobody seemed happier than 1988 Olympian Lance Ringnald, who finished seventh (114.098) to secure the alternate spot. Ringnald, 21, who trains with Dimas at Gold Cup Gymnastics in Albuquerque, has fought to come back from major shoulder surgery after tearing a muscle while performing on the rings at the 1991 World Championships.

UCLA’s Chainey Umphrey moved up from 10th to seventh place before his final event, the vault, but scored a 9.4 to finish eighth (114.020). Kurt Thomas, 36, finished 16th (111.060)

UCLA dominated the Olympic team in 1984, when Peter Vidmar, Tim Daggett and Mitch Gaylord finished 1-2-3 at the trials and helped the U.S. team to its first gold medal in Olympic competition. “I think that when this team gets to Barcelona, the other countries are going to say, ‘Lance Ringnald is the alternate? That’s a strong team.’ ” Vidmar said. Ringnald has a great international reputation and that will help it right there.”

U.S. Olympic Coach Francis Allen, who coaches at Nebraska, thinks the team has a chance to win a medal. “We have old blood and new guys, and I think we can finish two or three,” Allen said.

Keswick emerged as the star of the 1991 U.S. World Championship team when Ringnald was injured and withdrew. Keswick was the highest finisher for the Americans, placing 10th in the world. A math and economics major, Keswick has completed his college eligibility and plans to graduate next year.

Waller finished college competition two years ago and graduated last year with a degree in history.

“It’s been a dream of mine since I was 14 to make the team,” Keswick said. “Chris and I have never had a formal discussion about it, but we always knew we had the same goal.”

* WOMEN’S GYMNASTICS

Shannon Miller, 15, scores a narrow victory over Kim Zmeskal in the Olympic trials, and a team of eight is selected to head to training camp, where the final cut will be made before Barcelona. C5

* BOXING

Pepe Reilly of Glendale and Jeremy Williams of Long Beach are one victory away from a summer trip to Spain after victories in the finals of the U.S. Olympic trials. C4