UCLA Gymnastics Heads to Nebraska On a Roll

ICYMI, last weekend, the UCLA gymnastics team put on quite a show at Pauley Pavilion, beating Oregon 198.075-196.525. This was the first time this season the Bruins broke the 198 mark.

After the first rotation, the Beavers led by a small margin, but after the second rotation, the Bruins never looked back. Near perfect routines, including a beam routine by Katelyn Ohashi and a bars routine by Kyla Ross that both received 9.975s, which left Coach Val visibly upset, helped catapult UCLA to the lead. Ohashi eventually received her Perfect “10” with her Michael Jackson-inspired floor routine (which I’ve seen so many times I think I can actually perform it myself now) to the crowd’s delight.

Here is Ohashi’s Perfect “10” floor exercise, courtesy of Yarotska:

Now ranked #2 in the country, UCLA heads to Lincoln.

The Bruins will take on #16 Nebraska (6-1), #23 Iowa State (15-2) and Kent State (5-4) today in Lincoln, Nebraska, in the Masters Classic. The Huskers scored a season high 196.875 back on January 27 against Michigan, and are coming off the Elevate the Stage Meet on Friday where they competed against #17 Georgia, Illinois, and Stanford. They scored 196.700, which was their highest of the season.

Nebraska is lead by juniors Sienna Crouse and Megan Schweihofer, and their only loss of the season came against #1 ranked Oklahoma, their only meet without Schweihofer. This duo split the five event titles and finished first and second in the all-around last Saturday against Pittsburgh, and will probably pose as UCLA’s toughest competition.

Last Sunday, the Iowa State Cyclones scored a season high 196.450 in a tri meet against Illinois State and Lindenwood University. The team hit 24 of 24 routines, which is something they haven’t done all season. Iowa State was back to having three all-around competitors, with the top Cyclone score earned by Haylee Young with a 39.400. Meaghan Sievers tallied a 39.225 and Kelsey Paz made it back to competing as an all-arounder and scored a 39.125. Senior Hilary Green earned the Big 12 Event Specialist of the Week for the second time this year, and is the first Cyclone named Specialist of the Week twice in the same season since the award was created in 2007. Green tallied a 9.825 and finished second on bars in the tri-meet, and also placed first on the uneven bars in Iowa State’s quad meet last Friday night with a new career high of 9.925.

Kent State’s season high score of 196.125 came on February 18 against Central Michigan, but the Golden Flashes saw a dip in scoring last Sunday, when they tallied a 193.925 against Eastern Michigan. Kent State is No. 14 and No. 24 nationally on uneven bars and floor exercise, respectively, and the Flashes have a Mountain Athletic Conference high RQS (regional qualifying score) of 49.100 ranking on both events. Kent State is lead by Senior Rachel Stypinski, who is ranked 11th in the country with an all-around RQS of 39.415 and owns the top six all-around scores in the MAC this season. Stypinski’s top event is balance beam, where she is ranked seventh in the country with a score of 90910. She is 13th nationally on floor exercise with a 9.895 and 18th on uneven bars with a 9.885.

Today’s meet is their last quad meet of the season. They will travel once more to Stanford, and then take on San Jose State at home before the Pac-12 Tournament on Saturday, March 24.


Go Bruins!