University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
Chiles, McDonald Named West Region Gymnast, Coach of Year
April 08, 2026 | Gymnastics
Chiles, also the Big Ten Gymnast of the Year, ranked in the Top 2 in the all-around all season long and finished the regular season ranked No. 1 on floor exercise. She earned the maximum five first-team regular season All-America honors, becoming just the second Bruin ever to do so. She is the only gymnast in the nation ranked in the Top 5 on all four events and the all-around, ranking No. 1 on floor, No. 2 in the all-around, No. 3 on vault and No. 4 on bars and beam. Chiles won the Big Ten all-around, bars, beam and floor titles, tying the Big Ten record for most individual titles at a conference championship. She also captured the NCAA Regional vault and floor crowns to set a new school record with 10 Regional titles. She also became the first Bruin to win four Regional floor titles. Chiles has scored eight perfect 10s this season โ six on floor, one on vault and one on bars โ and has 19 in her career, ranking 10th all-time in the NCAA. The AAI Award finalist has totaled 48 event wins this year and 130 in her career.
Like Chiles, McDonald also collected both the West Region and Big Ten awards. The fourth-year Bruin head coach led UCLA to back-to-back regular season and conference championships and guided UCLA to its first NCAA Regional title since 2019. UCLA went unbeaten in conference play for the second-straight year and has yet to lose to a Big Ten opponent in any competition since joining the league a year ago. At the conference championships, UCLA won the team title with a 198.100, and three gymnasts - Chiles (all-around, uneven bars, balance beam, floor exercise), Riley Jenkins (vault) and Sydney Barros (uneven bars) โ combined to win six individual titles. Chiles won the NCAA Regional vault title and shared the floor title with freshman Tiana Sumanasekera. McDonald graduated more than half of the team's routines from last year's NCAA runner-up squad but took a young squad to a 32-2 overall record and the No. 4 NCAA seed.
Players Mentioned
