NCAA Gymnastics Championships: UCLA to Compete in First Elite Eight

After winning the Ann Arbor Regional two weeks ago with a score of 198.075 and placing second overall behind Oklahoma (198.475), UCLA will compete in session one today of the NCAA Gymnastics Championships in Fort Worth, Texas. The Bruins should have a solid home crowd, as the venue is close to the Dallas home of UCLA’s Madison Kocian.

For 26 years, the finals had typically been referred to as the “Super Six”, but for the first time, eight teams made up of the top two teams from each regional will compete in the two semifinal sessions with the top two teams from each semifinal advancing to the finals.

The top team regional scores were as follows:

Oklahoma (Athens) 198.475
UCLA (Ann Arbor) 198.075
Georgia (Athens) 198.050
LSU (Baton Rouge) 197.500
Denver (Corvallis) 197.375
Michigan (Ann Arbor) 197.275
Utah (Baton Rouge) 197.250
Oregon State (Corvallis) 196.900

The Corvallis Regional included an upset of top-ranked Florida by Oregon State, when Florida had back-to-back falls on beam and wound up placing third. Florida’s season came to a close much sooner than they had anticipated.

In today’s competition, UCLA will take on Utah, LSU, and Michigan in the first semifinal. They have the fortune to compete in the very familiar Olympic order, beginning on vault, proceeding then to bars and beam, and concluding the meet on floor. Michigan will start on bars, LSU will begin on beam, and Utah starts on floor.

Tomorrow’s Final Four meet will take place at 4:00 pm PT, to determine the winner of this year’s NCAA gymnastics crown.

This is your NCAA Gymnastics Semifinals Open Thread.


Go Bruins!