No. 4 UCLA at Collegiate Challenge powered by Under Armour
Saturday, Jan. 4, 2020 – 6:30 p.m. (PT) @ Anaheim, Calif. (Anaheim Arena at Anaheim Convention Center)
vs. No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 9 California, No. 22 Stanford
Live Broadcast: FloGymnastics
BRUINS OPEN SEASON IN ANAHEIM SATURDAY
No. 4-ranked UCLA will open the 2020 season on Saturday, Jan. 4 at the Collegiate Challenge powered by Under Armour. The quad meet between UCLA, No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 9 California and No. 22 Stanford will take place on podium at the Anaheim Arena in the Anaheim Convention Center at 6:30 p.m. The meet will be streamed live on FloGymnastics for PRO subscribers.
TICKETS/PROMOTIONS
General admission tickets for UCLA's session (Session 2) at the Collegiate Challenge are on sale at cacollegiatechallenge.com for $35. UCLA fans can use the code: UCLAFAN20 for 20% off tickets. Multi-session tickets, which include Session 1 featuring Arizona State, Denver, Auburn and Penn State at 1pm, are $45.
ROTATION ORDER
UCLA will begin the meet on uneven bars and end on vault. Oklahoma starts on vault, California begins on balance beam, and Stanford starts on floor.
SCOUTING THE FIELD
Defending NCAA champion Oklahoma enters the competition as the preseason No. 1. The Sooners are led by two-time reigning NCAA all-around champion Maggie Nichols and also have five other All-Americans on their roster, along with 2016 Olympic alternate Ragan Smith. California is the third Top 10 team in the second session, beginning the season ranked No. 9. The Golden Bears are led by 2019 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year Milan Clausi and juniors Kyana George and Emi Watterson. Stanford opens the year ranked No. 22 nationally and is led by junior Kyla Bryant.
UCLA IN SEASON OPENERS
UCLA has won six of its last seven season openers, including victories in the last five years. In 2019, the Bruins shined on beam and floor in their 197.250-195.700 win over Nebraska. Kyla Ross started her record-setting season with a 39.650 all-around score and had two routines that earned a 10 from one judge, earning a 9.975 on vault and 9.95 on floor.
NEW ERA BEGINS AT UCLA
UCLA Gymnastics has a new leader for the first time in 29 years. Following Hall of Fame head coach Valorie Kondos Field as head coach of the Bruins is Chris Waller, who was an assistant under Kondos Field for 17 years. Waller helped guide the Bruins to four NCAA titles during his time as an assistant. In his first season on staff in 2003, the Bruins swept through the postseason, winning Pac-10, NCAA Regional and NCAA Championships. Also that year, he was the acting head coach when UCLA snapped the longest home-court winning streak in NCAA history for any sport, handing Utah its first home loss in 23 years. Waller was voted by his peers the National Assistant Coach of the Year in 2004 and the West Region Assistant Coach of the Year in 2010 and 2018. A champion gymnast himself, Waller won three NCAA titles with the Bruin men's team, and he competed at the 1992 Olympics, where he placed fifth on pommel horse.
Joining Waller's staff are a few familiar faces. Associate Head Coach Kristina Comforte is a former UCLA All-American and Bruin record-holder on vault. Assistant Coach Dom Palange was a volunteer assistant coach for UCLA from 2014-16. Also on board is volunteer assistant coach and choreographer BJ Das, a former Washington Huskies gymnast who spent last season as a volunteer coach at Utah.
SOLID CORE RETURNS IN 2020
UCLA returns all but three routines from the NCAA Championships and has eight All-Americans on the roster - reigning NCAA vault and floor exercise co-champion Kyla Ross, Grace Glenn, Felicia Hano, Madison Kocian, Gracie Kramer, Nia Dennis, Margzetta Frazier and Norah Flatley.The Bruins lose 10.0-caliber routines on beam and floor from Katelyn Ohashi and consistent high marks on beam from All-American Brielle Nguyen but bring in seasoned routines from William & Mary transfer Samantha Sakti and redshirt senior Nicki Shapiro.
UCLA's strength lies in its depth. The Bruins have 22 gymnasts on the roster, including 11 who competed in at least 10 meets last season - Dennis, Flatley, Frazier, Grace Glenn, Hano, Kocian, Kramer, Ross, Samantha Sakti, Pauline Tratz and Sekai Wright. UCLA finished the 2019 regular season ranked in the Top 3 in the nation on all four events - No. 1 on bars and floor, No. 2 on beam and No. 3 on vault.
NEW FACES
The Bruins welcome in 2020 four freshmen (Emma Andres, Paige Hogan, Chloe Lashbrooke and Kalyany Steele), sophomore transfer Samantha Sakti, and redshirt senior Nicki Shapiro. Steele is a former elite who placed 13th at the 2017 USA Championships. Andres and Lashbrooke are both two-time Level 10 Nationals qualifiers. Hogan is a four-time Level 10 state champion. Sakti transferred from William & Mary, where she earned all-league honors on floor exercise and scored a school-record 9.925 on floor in her first meet. Shapiro returns to the Bruins after leaving the sport for three years. She competed for UCLA as a freshman in 2016 and scored a career-high 9.925 on beam.
SENIOR STRONG
The heart of UCLA's team lies in the nine-member senior class of Anna Glenn, Grace Glenn, Felicia Hano, Madison Kocian, Gracie Kramer, Kyla Ross, Mercedez Sanchez, Nicki Shapiro and Macy Toronjo. The senior class competed half of the team's routines at last year's NCAA Championships and have a combined 39 All-America honors between them. Ross has more than half of those 39 honors alone (a school-record-tying 19). She, Grace Glenn and Felicia Hano all won Pac-12 individual titles last season, with Ross winning the all-around, bars and floor, Glenn tying for the beam title, and Hano sharing the vault crown.
PRESEASON RANKING
UCLA begins the season ranked No. 4 in the national preseason coaches poll. The two-time defending Pac-12 champion Bruins were selected by the conference coaches to win once again. The Bruins are set to face 10 teams in the preseason Top 36, starting off with a bang against three Top 25 teams in the season opener in Anaheim - No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 9 California and No. 22 Stanford.
MEET THE BRUINS RECAP
UCLA fans got their first look at the 2020 team on Dec. 14 at the annual Meet the Bruins Blue vs. Gold intrasquad. Eight competitors - four from each team - showed full routines on all four events. On vault, four Bruins scored 9.9 or better, with Nia Dennis leading the way with a perfect 9.95 on her Yurchenko layout full vault. Felicia Hano, Kendal Poston and Sekai Wright each scored 9.9 on their 10.0-start valued vaults. Margzetta Frazier led the way on uneven bars with a leadoff 9.95. Dennis added a 9.9, and Norah Flatley scored 9.875. On balance beam, four Bruins earned 9.875 or better, with Frazier and Hano scoring 9.875, Samantha Sakti scoring 9.9 and Flatley 9.95. Kyla Ross' 9.95 led the way on floor exercise, and Frazier added a 9.925 and Flatley a 9.875. Frazier was UCLA's top all-arounder, scoring 39.575, followed closely by Dennis' 39.475. Flatley averaged 9.9 on her three routines. If taking UCLA's top 5 routines on each event, the Bruins would have scored 197.600.
STREAKS
UCLA has scored 49+ in 123 straight rotations, the team's last sub-49 score coming in the first rotation of the 2018 season opener … The Bruins scored 49.5 or better on 44 of those 123 rotations … UCLA's streak of 30 straight meets scoring 49+ on all four apparatus is the longest active streak in the nation and tied for the second-longest in NCAA history behind Oklahoma (34 from 2016-18) and LSU (30 from 2016-18) … UCLA has scored 49+ on beam in its last 44 meets, breaking the NCAA record of 37 set by Oklahoma from 2016-18… The Bruins have scored 49+ on floor in their last 38 meets.
A LOOK BACK AT 2019
UCLA went 19-1 in 2019, scoring 197 or higher in every meet for the first time in school history. The Bruins lost just once in the regular season - at Oklahoma by two-tenths of a point - and won the Pac-12 and NCAA Ann Arbor Regional and placed first in the NCAA semifinal but finished in third place in the NCAA final. UCLA's season began with legendary head coach Valorie Kondos Field announcing her retirement at the end of the season. Two weeks into the season, Katelyn Ohashi blew up the internet with her perfect 10 floor exercise routine, making her a viral sensation and leading to unprecedented levels of media attention and to record-setting attendance around the country. Kyla Ross set records herself, going 10 straight meets with at least one perfect 10 and setting a new NCAA record with 14 10s in a single season. She became the first gymnast ever to record two Gym Slams in a single season and ended her year with NCAA championships on vault and floor, giving her NCAA titles on all four events in her career.
NO. 1 IN SOCIAL MEDIA FOLLOWERS
UCLA Gymnastics has the largest social media followings in all of women's collegiate sports, ranking No. 1 across all women's sports in combined followers on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, a total over 750,000. The Bruins rank first among all NCAA gymnastics teams on Instagram (341k), Facebook (348) and Twitter (66.4k). Among all UCLA teams, gymnastics ranks first on Instagram and Facebook, and UCLA Gymnastics is the most followed collegiate women's team Instagram account in the nation. Follow the Bruins at @UCLAGymnastics on Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat and on Facebook at facebook.com/uclagymnastics.
LOOKING AHEAD
The Bruins will host Boise State on Sunday, Jan. 13 at 3 p.m. in the home opener at Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom. Tickets are on sale now at uclabruins.com/tickets.