UCLA Gymnastics Faces Pac-12 Foes at Elevate the Stage

Today at 2:00 PM PT, UCLA gymnastics will take on Stanford (3-1), No. 2 Utah (1-0) and Washington (1-0) at the Elevate the Stage college meet in Reno, Nevada. Neither Washington nor Stanford are in this week’s rankings, but Washington was ranked No. 15 in the preseason poll, and Stanford was ranked No. 18. UCLA’s rotation will begin on the balance beam and end on the uneven bars and it’s the first time this season these teams will meet. Let’s take a look at how last week went for each of UCLA’s opponents.

Utah

Utah will be UCLA’s stiffest competition, finishing last weekend with the second highest total score in the country at 197.00, and the highest score on vault, with two team members bringing in a 9.900. Utah has had the top scores on vault in the Pac-12 since 2013. Their toughest event last weekend was the balance beam, with one fall and a low score of 9.575.

Here are highlights of last week’s win over BYU, courtesy of Pac-12 Networks on YouTube:

Stanford

Stanford competed last Monday in the NorCal Classic against UC Berkeley, San Jose State, Sacramento State, and UC Davis, and earned second place in the end, behind UC Berkeley who won the meet for the fourth year in a row. Senior Elizabeth Price earned a perfect 10 on bars that undoubtedly gave the Cardinal the advantage they needed, and it was Stanford’s first 10 in the event since 2006. This squad was picked to tie Oregon State for fifth in the Pac 12 before the season started, and typically they perform well on the floor and uneven bars. Unfortunately, in last week’s meet, the uneven bars were their lowest score due to the fact that they only had five competitors and two of those had falls.

Here is a short highlight of Price’s perfect landing on the uneven bars, from Stanford Athletics’ YouTube channel:

Washington

The GymDawgs are coming off of their best season since 1998 with a trip to the NCAA Championships. They just got their season started on Friday night with a road win over Sacramento State. Their final score was 195.350 which included five scores over 9.8, and Hailey Burleson won the all-around with a 39.275. On floor, Evanni Roberson (9.825) and Maya Washington (9.775) had the top scores of the night for all competitors.

Here are highlights from the 2017-2018 Purple and Gold Intrasquad event, thanks to UW Athletics on YouTube:

This meet is the first of a three week road stretch, which also includes a dual meet against Arizona in Tucson on Saturday, January 20, and the Metroplex Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas against LSU, North Carolina State, and Washington on Saturday, January 27.

Go Bruins!