Quest for #109 - UCLA Gymnastics at NCAA Championships Super Six Competition

Congratulations to the UCLA Gymnastics team, who won their semifinal yesterday by 0.200 points over second place Utah, with a final score of 197.400. Stanford is the third team from the morning session that is advancing to the Super Six, with a score of 197.125. Congratulations to the Pac-12 for dominating!

Senior Vanessa Zamarripa secured the win for UCLA with a fantastic floor routine with a score of 9.90. UCLA hit 22 out of 24 routines, which was good enough to win yesterday, but will not be enough to win today against powerhouse programs from the SEC. Everyone must be sharper. Even Coach Valerie Kondos-Field acknowledged this:

"To be here, to be moving on the Super Six, is beyond words exciting," said UCLA head coach Valorie Kondos Field. "For us, it was an okay meet, it wasn't a great meet, and it's great when you get your team that says 'No, we're not going to give up. No, we're not going to settle for anything less than greatness'.

The Bruins know this all too well, as they came in second last year.

Today is the team final, where in addition to Utah and Stanford, the Bruins will be up against Alabama, Florida, and Arkansas. We shall call it a showdown for gymnastics dominance between the Pac-12 (Oregon State missed out on being the 4th Pac-12 team in the Super Six) vs the SEC. We can't beat them in football, so let's kick their behinds in gymnastics.

Alabama and Florida put up monster scores of 197.675 and 197.650 respectively. If UCLA wants to come close to Alabama's level, they will need to hit every single routine. The lowest score by an Alabama gymnast was 9.825 which is pretty close to what UCLA was averaging per event. UCLA did break the 198 barrier this year, and will have to be 24 for 24 to win the national title.

UCLA's Rotation Order: (thanks UCLAgymnastics Twitter)
Rotation: Floor
Rotation 1: Floor Exercise
Rotation 2: Vault
Rotation 3: Bye
Rotation 4: Uneven Bars
Rotation 5: Balance Beam
Rotation 6: Bye

The Super Six is being aired live on ESPN3. You can also follow along via the UCLA Gymnastics Twitter, follow the live stats, or chat along with us below.

The journey to 109 continues today. GO BRUINS.