Saturday, January 14
West Valley City, UT
2:00 PM
UCLA
vs
UCLA, Minnesota, Boise State, Washington
Ciena Alipio
Photo by: Jamie Mitchell
Bruins Travel to Utah for Wasatch Classic
January 12, 2023 | Gymnastics
NO. 6 UCLA AT WASATCH CLASSICย
vs. No. 19 Minnesota, No. 25 Washington, Boise State
Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023 โ ย 3pm MT / 2pm PT
West Valley City, Utah (Maverik Center)
BRUINS BACK ON PODIUM AT WASATCH CLASSICย
UCLA will compete on podium for the second consecutive week, participating in the Wasatch Classic in West Valley City, Utah on Saturday, Jan. 14 at 3pm MT/2pm PT. The Bruins will compete in session one against No. 19 Minnesota, No. 25 Washington and Boise State. The meet will be streamed free on sporfie.com. This will be the first of three trips to Utah for the Bruins this season. UCLA will compete in a dual meet at Utah on Feb. 3 and then return to the Maverik Center for the Pac-12 Championships on Mar. 18. ย ย ย ย
IN THE RANKINGS ย
UCLA is tied for sixth overall in the first weekly rankings of the season, its highest week-one ranking since the 2020 season, when the Bruins were ranked third. The Bruins are ranked third on uneven bars, fourth on vault and floor exercise and 18th on balance beam. Individually, three Bruins rank in the Top 20 in the all-around - No. 2 Jordan Chiles, No. 7 Selena Harris and No. 18 Chae Campbell. On vault, Campbell ranks fourth, while Chiles and Harris are tied for 11th. Chiles leads the nation on uneven bars, while Margzetta Frazier sits right behind at No. 4. Harris ranks No. 16. Emma Malabuyo and Chiles are ranked No. 14 on balance beam, and Campbell is one of the national leaders on floor exercise, with Malabuyo and Harris coming in at No. 18. ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย
LAST TIME OUTย
UCLA went toe-to-toe with three of the Top 5 teams in the nation, posting its highest season-opening score in 18 years with a 197.275. The Bruins scored 49.0 or higher on all four events, recording 11 scores of 9.9 or higher, and hit 24-for-24 routines without a fall while finishing fourth overall. No. 1 Oklahoma placed first with a 197.925, No. 4 Michigan finished second with a 197.400, and No. 5 Auburn was third with a 197.350. The Bruins were just 0.125 behind Oklahoma going into the final rotation but lost ground after scoring 49.000 on balance beam. Two Bruins won event titles - Jordan Chiles on uneven bars (9.975) and Chae Campbell on floor exercise (9.950). ย ย ย ย ย ย
SUPER STARTย
First-year head coach Janelle McDonald is off to a super start, with the Bruins posting Top 4 marks in the nation on vault (49.375), uneven bars (49.500) and floor exercise (49.400), along with the sixth-highest team total (197.275). UCLA's uneven bars score was its highest on that event since scoring 49.550 on Feb. 21, 2021 and its highest on the road since scoring 49.525 at BYU on Jan. 18, 2020. The overall team score of 197.725 was the highest by a UCLA team in a season opener since the 2005 team scored 197.300 in a dual meet at Utah. It was also just the fourth time in school history that a UCLA team has scored 197 in the first meet of the year. ย ย ย ย ย
CHILES WINS FIRST PAC-12 GYMNAST OF WEEK AWARDย
Sophomore Jordan Chiles captured her first career Gymnast of the Week honor after recording the nation's No. 2 all-around score in the Bruins' season opener. Chiles contributed a 39.650, the third-highest all-around score in her career, to tie for second at the Super 16. Additionally, she tied for first place on uneven bars with a near-perfect 9.975 and added a pair of 9.9s on vault and balance beam and a 9.875 on floor exercise. Chiles enters the national rankings at No. 1 on uneven bars, No. 2 in the all-around. No. 11 on vault and No. 14 on balance beam. ย ย ย ย
HARRIS EARNS PAC-12 FRESHMAN OF WEEK HONORSย
Selena Harris made a splashy collegiate debut in her hometown of Las Vegas, recording the nation's highest all-around total by a freshman with a fifth-place mark of 39.500 en route to Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honors. Her score was the highest mark by a UCLA freshman in a season opener since Tasha Schwikert scored 39.575 in her debut in 2005. Harris' first three routines in the Super 16 scored 9.900, as she finished tied for sixth on vault and tied for eighth on uneven bars and floor exercise. She now ranks No. 7 nationally in the all-around, No. 11 on vault, No. 16 on uneven bars and No. 18 on floor exercise.
DEBUT PERFORMANCES ย
In addition to Selena Harris' all-around debut, three other Bruins saw their first collegiate action at the Super 16. Sophomore Emily Lee, who missed all of 2022 while recovering from an Achilles injury sustained at the Olympic Trials, competed on three events and hit a 9.850 on her first-ever collegiate routine. Two freshmen saw their first action in the season opener, with Maddie Anyimi scoring 9.775 on vault and Ciena Alipio coming in on beam as a late sub and scoring 9.750. ย
FRAZIER RETURNS TO COMPETITION ย
Redshirt senior Margzetta Frazier made her return to competition after missing most of 2022 with a fractured foot suffered in the season opener. Frazier competed on three events and closed her night with a 9.950 on uneven bars, the event on which she was injured last season. The three-time All-American has now hit all 95 of her collegiate routines without a fall. ย ย ย ย
ABOUT THE BRUINS ย
UCLA returns a star-studded lineup, led by 2020 Olympic silver medalist and three-time 2022 World Championships medalist Jordan Chiles. She is one of three returning All-Americans on the Bruin squad, along with four-time All-American Chae Campbell and three-time All-American Margzetta Frazier. Also back are 2020 U.S. Olympic team alternate and All-Pac-12 beamer Emma Malabuyo, 2020 Canadian Olympian Brooklyn Moors, 2018 World beam silver medalist Ana Padurariu and 2020 Olympic Trials competitor Emily Lee, who will be making her UCLA debut after sitting out the 2022 season due to injury. Leading the four-person freshman class are eight-time Level 10 national champion Selena Harris and 2022 U.S. beam silver medalist Ciena Alipio.ย ย ย ย ย
NEW ERA BEGINS UNDER MCDONALDย
Head coach Janelle McDonald begins her first season leading the Bruins. McDonald came to UCLA in May 2022 with two decades of coaching experience under her belt, including four successful seasons as an assistant coach at California (2019-22), where she helped coach California to its first-ever Pac-12 regular season title in 2022 and a program-best seventh-place NCAA finish in 2021. Serving as the team's uneven bars head coach, McDonald coached Maya Bordas to California's first-ever NCAA individual championship in 2021, while the uneven bars squad finished the regular season ranked No. 1 in the nation and tied a NCAA record with a team score of 49.825. McDonald was honored in 2020 and 2021 as the WCGA Regional Assistant Coach of the Year and was part of the 2021 College Gym News Coaching Staff of the Year. She began her coaching career in 1999 while in high school and has extensive coaching experience at the club level, including a six-year (2012-18) tenure at WOGA.
McDonald also brought in two new coaches in assistant coach Kyle Grable and volunteer assistant Autumn Grable. The Grables came to UCLA from Jaycie Phelps Athletic Center (JPAC) in Indianapolis, where they served as co-head coach for elite development the last five years. Under their guidance, JPAC was awarded J.O. Club of the Year honors nationally in 2019 and in Region 5 in 2021. Kyle coached uneven bars for Levels 6-10, while Autumn coached balance beam and floor exercise. Together, they coached a Level 10 national all-around champion in 2019, three Level 10 uneven bars national champions, a 2021 Level 10 National beam champion, two Level 10 national all-around runners-up and qualified athletes to the Nastia Liukin Cup the past four years.
One previous coach remained on staff. BJ Das returned to the Bruins in a full-time role after serving three seasons as a volunteer assistant from 2020-22. Each year as the Bruins' choreographer, Das created floor exercise routines that went viral, including two routines from Nia Dennis that each amassed over 11 million views just on Twitter alone. Das also put together two routines that won Pac-12 floor exercise championships (Chae Campbell and Pauline Tratz in 2021) and three routines that scored perfect 10s (Gracie Kramer in 2020, Campbell twice in 2022 and Jordan Chiles twice in 2022). UCLA's floor exercise squad ranked first in the nation at the conclusion of the 2020 season.ย
CHILES SHINES ON WORLD STAGE ย
Olympic silver medalist Jordan Chiles spent the offseason winning even more hardware, capturing three medals at the World Championships, two at the Paris World Challenge Cup and three at the U.S. Championships. Chiles competed at her first-ever World Championship in the fall and helped lead the U.S. to the team gold medal with a strong all-around performance before adding two silver medals in the individual event finals, on vault and floor exercise. The Bruin sophomore also won the floor exercise title and finished second on vault at the Paris World Challenge Cup in the summer and was a three-time bronze medalist (all-around, uneven bars and floor exercise) at the 2022 U.S. Gymnastics Championships. During her freshman season in 2022, Chiles qualified to the NCAA Championships on uneven bars and floor exercise and earned All-America honors on floor. She also received first-team All-Pac-12 honors on bars and floor and was an honorable mention selection on vault. Chiles recorded three perfect 10s in 2022 โ two on floor and one on bars โ and became only the third freshman in school history to score 39.8 or higher in the all-around. ย ย ย
UCLA TO HOST NCAA REGIONALS ย
For the first time in 13 years, UCLA will host the NCAA Regionals in Pauley Pavilion. The three-day, nine-team competition will begin on March 29 with a first round dual meet between the two lowest-seeded teams. The winner will advance to the second round, which will take place on March 30 with two quad meets. The top two teams from each of the two quad meets will meet in the regional final on April 1, with the top two finishers advancing to the NCAA Championships. Tickets for the NCAA Regionals are on sale now at uclabruins.com/tickets. The complete field for the Regional will be announced on March 20. UCLA had been scheduled to host the Regionals in 2020 before the season was canceled due to the pandemic. ย
LOOKING AHEAD
The Bruins will hit the road once again next week, competing in a conference dual meet against Washington on Saturday, Jan. 21 at 2pm. The meet will be televised live on Pac-12 Networks. This will be the third week in a row that the two teams have competed in the same meet, although they did not compete in the same session at the season-opening Super 16. ย ย
vs. No. 19 Minnesota, No. 25 Washington, Boise State
Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023 โ ย 3pm MT / 2pm PT
West Valley City, Utah (Maverik Center)
BRUINS BACK ON PODIUM AT WASATCH CLASSICย
UCLA will compete on podium for the second consecutive week, participating in the Wasatch Classic in West Valley City, Utah on Saturday, Jan. 14 at 3pm MT/2pm PT. The Bruins will compete in session one against No. 19 Minnesota, No. 25 Washington and Boise State. The meet will be streamed free on sporfie.com. This will be the first of three trips to Utah for the Bruins this season. UCLA will compete in a dual meet at Utah on Feb. 3 and then return to the Maverik Center for the Pac-12 Championships on Mar. 18. ย ย ย ย
IN THE RANKINGS ย
UCLA is tied for sixth overall in the first weekly rankings of the season, its highest week-one ranking since the 2020 season, when the Bruins were ranked third. The Bruins are ranked third on uneven bars, fourth on vault and floor exercise and 18th on balance beam. Individually, three Bruins rank in the Top 20 in the all-around - No. 2 Jordan Chiles, No. 7 Selena Harris and No. 18 Chae Campbell. On vault, Campbell ranks fourth, while Chiles and Harris are tied for 11th. Chiles leads the nation on uneven bars, while Margzetta Frazier sits right behind at No. 4. Harris ranks No. 16. Emma Malabuyo and Chiles are ranked No. 14 on balance beam, and Campbell is one of the national leaders on floor exercise, with Malabuyo and Harris coming in at No. 18. ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย
LAST TIME OUTย
UCLA went toe-to-toe with three of the Top 5 teams in the nation, posting its highest season-opening score in 18 years with a 197.275. The Bruins scored 49.0 or higher on all four events, recording 11 scores of 9.9 or higher, and hit 24-for-24 routines without a fall while finishing fourth overall. No. 1 Oklahoma placed first with a 197.925, No. 4 Michigan finished second with a 197.400, and No. 5 Auburn was third with a 197.350. The Bruins were just 0.125 behind Oklahoma going into the final rotation but lost ground after scoring 49.000 on balance beam. Two Bruins won event titles - Jordan Chiles on uneven bars (9.975) and Chae Campbell on floor exercise (9.950). ย ย ย ย ย ย
SUPER STARTย
First-year head coach Janelle McDonald is off to a super start, with the Bruins posting Top 4 marks in the nation on vault (49.375), uneven bars (49.500) and floor exercise (49.400), along with the sixth-highest team total (197.275). UCLA's uneven bars score was its highest on that event since scoring 49.550 on Feb. 21, 2021 and its highest on the road since scoring 49.525 at BYU on Jan. 18, 2020. The overall team score of 197.725 was the highest by a UCLA team in a season opener since the 2005 team scored 197.300 in a dual meet at Utah. It was also just the fourth time in school history that a UCLA team has scored 197 in the first meet of the year. ย ย ย ย ย
CHILES WINS FIRST PAC-12 GYMNAST OF WEEK AWARDย
Sophomore Jordan Chiles captured her first career Gymnast of the Week honor after recording the nation's No. 2 all-around score in the Bruins' season opener. Chiles contributed a 39.650, the third-highest all-around score in her career, to tie for second at the Super 16. Additionally, she tied for first place on uneven bars with a near-perfect 9.975 and added a pair of 9.9s on vault and balance beam and a 9.875 on floor exercise. Chiles enters the national rankings at No. 1 on uneven bars, No. 2 in the all-around. No. 11 on vault and No. 14 on balance beam. ย ย ย ย
HARRIS EARNS PAC-12 FRESHMAN OF WEEK HONORSย
Selena Harris made a splashy collegiate debut in her hometown of Las Vegas, recording the nation's highest all-around total by a freshman with a fifth-place mark of 39.500 en route to Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honors. Her score was the highest mark by a UCLA freshman in a season opener since Tasha Schwikert scored 39.575 in her debut in 2005. Harris' first three routines in the Super 16 scored 9.900, as she finished tied for sixth on vault and tied for eighth on uneven bars and floor exercise. She now ranks No. 7 nationally in the all-around, No. 11 on vault, No. 16 on uneven bars and No. 18 on floor exercise.
DEBUT PERFORMANCES ย
In addition to Selena Harris' all-around debut, three other Bruins saw their first collegiate action at the Super 16. Sophomore Emily Lee, who missed all of 2022 while recovering from an Achilles injury sustained at the Olympic Trials, competed on three events and hit a 9.850 on her first-ever collegiate routine. Two freshmen saw their first action in the season opener, with Maddie Anyimi scoring 9.775 on vault and Ciena Alipio coming in on beam as a late sub and scoring 9.750. ย
FRAZIER RETURNS TO COMPETITION ย
Redshirt senior Margzetta Frazier made her return to competition after missing most of 2022 with a fractured foot suffered in the season opener. Frazier competed on three events and closed her night with a 9.950 on uneven bars, the event on which she was injured last season. The three-time All-American has now hit all 95 of her collegiate routines without a fall. ย ย ย ย
ABOUT THE BRUINS ย
UCLA returns a star-studded lineup, led by 2020 Olympic silver medalist and three-time 2022 World Championships medalist Jordan Chiles. She is one of three returning All-Americans on the Bruin squad, along with four-time All-American Chae Campbell and three-time All-American Margzetta Frazier. Also back are 2020 U.S. Olympic team alternate and All-Pac-12 beamer Emma Malabuyo, 2020 Canadian Olympian Brooklyn Moors, 2018 World beam silver medalist Ana Padurariu and 2020 Olympic Trials competitor Emily Lee, who will be making her UCLA debut after sitting out the 2022 season due to injury. Leading the four-person freshman class are eight-time Level 10 national champion Selena Harris and 2022 U.S. beam silver medalist Ciena Alipio.ย ย ย ย ย
NEW ERA BEGINS UNDER MCDONALDย
Head coach Janelle McDonald begins her first season leading the Bruins. McDonald came to UCLA in May 2022 with two decades of coaching experience under her belt, including four successful seasons as an assistant coach at California (2019-22), where she helped coach California to its first-ever Pac-12 regular season title in 2022 and a program-best seventh-place NCAA finish in 2021. Serving as the team's uneven bars head coach, McDonald coached Maya Bordas to California's first-ever NCAA individual championship in 2021, while the uneven bars squad finished the regular season ranked No. 1 in the nation and tied a NCAA record with a team score of 49.825. McDonald was honored in 2020 and 2021 as the WCGA Regional Assistant Coach of the Year and was part of the 2021 College Gym News Coaching Staff of the Year. She began her coaching career in 1999 while in high school and has extensive coaching experience at the club level, including a six-year (2012-18) tenure at WOGA.
McDonald also brought in two new coaches in assistant coach Kyle Grable and volunteer assistant Autumn Grable. The Grables came to UCLA from Jaycie Phelps Athletic Center (JPAC) in Indianapolis, where they served as co-head coach for elite development the last five years. Under their guidance, JPAC was awarded J.O. Club of the Year honors nationally in 2019 and in Region 5 in 2021. Kyle coached uneven bars for Levels 6-10, while Autumn coached balance beam and floor exercise. Together, they coached a Level 10 national all-around champion in 2019, three Level 10 uneven bars national champions, a 2021 Level 10 National beam champion, two Level 10 national all-around runners-up and qualified athletes to the Nastia Liukin Cup the past four years.
One previous coach remained on staff. BJ Das returned to the Bruins in a full-time role after serving three seasons as a volunteer assistant from 2020-22. Each year as the Bruins' choreographer, Das created floor exercise routines that went viral, including two routines from Nia Dennis that each amassed over 11 million views just on Twitter alone. Das also put together two routines that won Pac-12 floor exercise championships (Chae Campbell and Pauline Tratz in 2021) and three routines that scored perfect 10s (Gracie Kramer in 2020, Campbell twice in 2022 and Jordan Chiles twice in 2022). UCLA's floor exercise squad ranked first in the nation at the conclusion of the 2020 season.ย
CHILES SHINES ON WORLD STAGE ย
Olympic silver medalist Jordan Chiles spent the offseason winning even more hardware, capturing three medals at the World Championships, two at the Paris World Challenge Cup and three at the U.S. Championships. Chiles competed at her first-ever World Championship in the fall and helped lead the U.S. to the team gold medal with a strong all-around performance before adding two silver medals in the individual event finals, on vault and floor exercise. The Bruin sophomore also won the floor exercise title and finished second on vault at the Paris World Challenge Cup in the summer and was a three-time bronze medalist (all-around, uneven bars and floor exercise) at the 2022 U.S. Gymnastics Championships. During her freshman season in 2022, Chiles qualified to the NCAA Championships on uneven bars and floor exercise and earned All-America honors on floor. She also received first-team All-Pac-12 honors on bars and floor and was an honorable mention selection on vault. Chiles recorded three perfect 10s in 2022 โ two on floor and one on bars โ and became only the third freshman in school history to score 39.8 or higher in the all-around. ย ย ย
UCLA TO HOST NCAA REGIONALS ย
For the first time in 13 years, UCLA will host the NCAA Regionals in Pauley Pavilion. The three-day, nine-team competition will begin on March 29 with a first round dual meet between the two lowest-seeded teams. The winner will advance to the second round, which will take place on March 30 with two quad meets. The top two teams from each of the two quad meets will meet in the regional final on April 1, with the top two finishers advancing to the NCAA Championships. Tickets for the NCAA Regionals are on sale now at uclabruins.com/tickets. The complete field for the Regional will be announced on March 20. UCLA had been scheduled to host the Regionals in 2020 before the season was canceled due to the pandemic. ย
LOOKING AHEAD
The Bruins will hit the road once again next week, competing in a conference dual meet against Washington on Saturday, Jan. 21 at 2pm. The meet will be televised live on Pac-12 Networks. This will be the third week in a row that the two teams have competed in the same meet, although they did not compete in the same session at the season-opening Super 16. ย ย
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