UCLA
NCAA Team Semifinal/Individual Competition
Bruin Duo to Vie for Individual National Titles
April 12, 2022 | Gymnastics
Thursday, April 14, 2021 – 5 p.m. CT / 3 p.m. PT
Fort Worth, Texas
MEET INFORMATION
Venue: Dickies Arena
TV: ESPN2
Event Feeds: watchespn.com
Live Stats: ncaa.com
FLATLEY, CHILES VIE FOR INDIVIDUAL TITLES
UCLA qualified two gymnasts as individual competitors at the 2022 NCAA Gymnastics Championships in Fort Worth, Texas. Senior Norah Flatley qualified as an all-arounder, and freshman Jordan Chiles qualified on uneven bars and floor exercise. The Bruin duo will compete on Day One of the Championships on Thursday, April 14, in the second semifinal session at 5pm CT/3pm PT.
ROTATION ORDER
Norah Flatley will rotate with Michigan and start her competition on the floor exercise and then rotate to vault and then uneven bars before finishing on balance beam. She will compete at the end of Michigan's team rotation. Jordan Chiles will rotate with Missouri and compete on uneven bars in the first rotation and floor exercise in the third.
FOLLOW LIVE
The first day of competition at the NCAA Championships will be televised live on ESPN2 on Thursday, April 14 at 12pm CT/10am PT and 5pm CT/3pm PT. The team finals will air live on ABC on Saturday, April 16 at 12pm CT/10am PT. Event feeds for all four apparatus will be available on watchespn.com. Live results can be found at ncaa.com.
COMPETITION FORMAT
All competitors will be in action on Thursday, April 14 in the team semifinals and individual event and all-around championships. Individual event winners and the all-around champion will be determined after both semifinals are completed. The Top 2 teams from each semifinal will advance to the Team Finals on Saturday, April 16. Teams competing in the first semifinal are Oklahoma, Alabama, Minnesota and Utah. Florida, Missouri, Auburn and Michigan will compete in the second semifinal.
UCLA's INDIVIDUAL NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY
A total of 20 Bruins have won 40 NCAA titles, ranking UCLA second behind only Georgia (42) in individual NCAA titles. UCLA has won nine individual titles in the last six championships. Kyla Ross has accounted for most of those titles, winning vault and floor exercise in 2019 and uneven bars and balance beam in 2017. Other recent event winners were Katelyn Ohashi (2018 floor exercise), Christine Peng-Peng Lee (2018 balance beam), Danusia Francis (2016 balance beam), and Samantha Peszek (2015 all-around and balance beam). The Bruins have captured 29 individual titles since 2000, the most of any school during that time period. Since 2000, UCLA has won the most individual titles on vault (five, tied with Florida), uneven bars (six), balance beam (eight) and floor exercise (six).
YEAR THREE OF NEW FORMAT
After 26 years of the Super Six Team Final format, this is the third year of the new championship format featuring eight teams in the semifinals and four teams advancing to the finals. The championship qualifiers were the top two teams and top all-arounder at each of the four Regionals, along with the top event specialist in each event (not on an advancing team or an all-arounder).
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES
*This is just the fifth time that UCLA has not qualified as a team to the NCAA Championships. The other years UCLA did not qualify were 1985, 1991, 2006 and 2021. The Bruins won round two of the Regional but finished .025 out of second place in the Regional Final in Raleigh this season.
*Only seven teams have ever won the NCAA title in the 39 years of the Championships - Georgia (10), Utah (9), UCLA (7), Alabama (6), Oklahoma (4), Florida (3) and 2021 first-time winner Michigan. For the first 15 years of the Championship, only Utah, Georgia and Alabama had ever won the team title. UCLA broke the stranglehold in 1997. It took 16 years for another new team - Florida in 2013 - to win a title, and Oklahoma joined the party in 2014, tying with Florida for the championship before winning outright in 2016, 2017 and 2019. Michigan became the latest new champion in 2021.
*Six of the schools return from the eight-team 2021 NCAA Championships field - Michigan (1st place), Oklahoma (2nd), Utah (3rd), Florida (4th), Alabama (5th) and Minnesota (8th). Auburn returns to the NCAAs for the first time since 2016, and Missouri is making its second-ever appearance and first since 2010.
*There are five returning individual champions in the field - Michigan's Natalie Wojcik (2019 beam), Auburn's Derrian Gobourne (2019 vault), Utah's Maile O'Keefe (2021 bars and floor), and Alabama's Luisa Blanco (2021 beam) and Lexi Graber (2021 floor).
*UCLA ranks second among all schools with 40 individual titles. Georgia leads all teams with 42. Utah ranks third with 29, followed by Alabama (28) and Florida (21).
*UCLA has won either a team or an individual NCAA title 15 times since the 2000 season.
HOW THEY GOT HERE ...
Norah Flatley and Jordan Chiles earned individual spots in the NCAA Championships by recording the top score from a non-advancing team at the NCAA Raleigh Regional second round. Michigan and Missouri earned the two qualifying team spots by virtue of their Top 2 finish, while the Bruins were edged out by just .025. Flatley's all-around score of 39.575 in Thursday's second round action gave her the Regional win, her second all-around victory this season. She recorded scores of 9.850 on vault, 9.925 on uneven bars and 9.900 on balance beam and floor exercise to edge out LSU's Kiya Johnson, who scored 39.550. Flatley is UCLA's first Regional all-around champion since Samantha Peszek in 2015.
Chiles scored 9.950 on uneven bars to tie for first place with Michigan's Natalie Wojcik. On floor exercise, Chiles' 9.950 score tied teammate Chae Campbell, Michigan's Gabby Wilson and Johnson, but Chiles won the tiebreaker between Campbell and Johnson, which counted all four scores from the judges. Chiles had a 10 and three 9.950s, while Campbell had a 10, two 9.950s and a 9.900, and Johnson had three 9.950s and a 9.900.
CHILES ACHIEVES RARE PERFECTION FOR FRESHMAN
Jordan Chiles' perfect 10 on floor exercise Feb. 4 was UCLA's first 10 since Kyla Ross on vault vs. Cal on Mar. 8, 2020 and the program's first on floor exercise since Gracie Kramer vs. Washington on Jan. 31, 2020. Chiles' perfect 10 on uneven bars a week later was the first by a Bruin on that event since Ross did it at BYU on Jan. 18, 2020. Chiles, a 2020 Olympic medalist, was the first UCLA freshman to score a perfect 10 on any event since Ross on beam in 2017. The last Bruin freshman to score a 10 on floor was Tasha Schwikert in 2005, and the last UCLA rookie to score a 10 on bars was Ross at Utah on Feb. 18, 2017. With two perfect 10s on floor this season (Feb. 4, Mar. 6), Chiles joins Schwikert and Jamie Dantzscher as the only Bruins to ever record multiple 10s on the event during their freshman season.
FROM TOKYO TO WESTWOOD
Before arriving to Westwood for her freshman season, Jordan Chiles and two other Bruin teammates spent part of their summer in Tokyo at the 2020 Olympics. Chiles, who deferred enrollment two seasons to pursue her Olympic dream after originally signing her national letter of intent in November 2018, made her dream a reality by being selected to the U.S. team in June 2021 after third-place finishes and eight-for-eight performances at both the U.S. Championships and the Olympic Trials. At the Olympics, Chiles memorably stepped in with hit routines on uneven bars and balance beam during the team final in place of teammate Simone Biles, who was unable to compete. Her performances helped the U.S. capture team silver.
Also in Tokyo with Chiles were fellow UCLA freshmen Brooklyn Moors, who represented Canada and placed 16th in the all-around competition, and Emma Malabuyo, who was named an alternate for the U.S. squad after a fourth-place showing at the U.S. Championships and a ninth-place finish at the Trials. Additionally, UCLA alumna Danusia Francis represented Jamaica as an individual competitor and competed on uneven bars despite tearing her ACL just before the competition.
ALL-AROUND COMEBACK FOR FLATLEY
After missing the entire 2021 regular season with an ankle injury, senior Norah Flatley came back at full strength in 2022, competing in the all-around in eight of the Bruins' competitions. Prior to this season, Flatley's only all-around appearance occurred on Jan. 12, 2019, in the second meet of her freshman campaign. Flatley scored 39.275 in that meet, placing second at the Collegiate Challenge. In her next all-around performance three years later, she scored 39.225 to place third at Minnesota. She set a new career-high of 39.450 on Jan. 30 against Arizona and upped her career-bests in each of the next two meets, improving to 39.525 against Utah on Feb. 4 and to a huge 39.750 against Cal on Mar. 6. Flatley's season average of 39.425 ranks second on the team, and she finished the regular season ranked No. 33 nationally in the all-around. She has posted career-highs this season with a 9.900 on vault, 9.950 on balance beam and 9.975 on floor exercise.
BRUINS ON BARS
Both Jordan Chiles and Norah Flatley are ranked in the Top 25 nationally on uneven bars, with Chiles sitting at No. 18 and Flatley at No. 24 in the final regular season ranking. Chiles scored a perfect 10 on bars at Stanford on Feb. 12, the only one of UCLA's six perfect 10s this season earned on the road. She has a season average of 9.858 and eight scores of 9.900 or higher, including five of 9.950 or higher. Chiles, who has arguably the most difficulty in the competition with four major release moves, scored 9.950 on both of her uneven bars routines at the NCAA Regional. Flatley has led the Bruins this year in season average with a 9.898 and also has eight scores of 9.900 or higher, with her high being 9.950, set Feb. 4 and Mar. 6.
FLOORED ON FLOOR
Jordan Chiles has scored two perfect 10s on floor exercise, on Feb. 4 and Mar. 6. Her routine, which features three double saltos, has averaged a team-high 9.908, and she has scored 9.950 or higher five times. Chiles ranks 23rd nationally on floor. Norah Flatley, who competed in the leadoff position during the season, will compete her floor routine at the back of the rotation on Thursday. She has a season average of 9.831, with five scores of 9.950 or higher, including a career-best 9.975 set on Mar. 6.
Players Mentioned
