Women’s gymnastics opens season with promising win against Ohio State

UCLA gymnastics returns all four gymnasts who scored a perfect 10 last year, while also bringing in a star-studded freshman class.

The No. 5 Bruins (1-0) enter the 2018 season as the favorite to win the Pac-12 title and took down the Ohio State Buckeyes (0-1) in their season opener.

“We’re in a very good place, we’re pretty healthy, relatively speaking,” said associate head coach Chris Waller. “We’ve got a strong team and it’s relatively deep, and everyone is hungry and excited to improve.”

Included in UCLA’s 13 returners are 2017 NCAA uneven bars and balance beam champion and Olympic gold medalist sophomores Kyla Ross, along with three other All-Americans – sophomore Madison Kocian, redshirt senior Christine Peng-Peng Lee, junior Katelyn Ohashi and sophomore Felicia Hano.

Kocian, an Olympic gold and silver medalist, starts the season sidelined due to a shoulder injury that she had surgery for in August. Waller said that he is optimistic that Kocian will return by midseason, which will also help team morale.

“It’s not just getting that higher score back, but it’s a momentum builder when your team is getting stronger and deeper as the season goes on instead of thinner,” Waller said.

Freshmen Nia Dennis and Pauline Tratz competed in four and two events, respectively, in the Bruins’ season opener. Dennis scored a 39.05 in the all-around and Tratz posted scored of 9.85 or higher in both of her events. Both gymnasts have competed on their national teams – Dennis for the United States and Tratz for Germany.

“The freshmen really proved that they are competitors,” Lee said. “I’m really proud of them because they handled this competition like they’ve been competing in Pauley for years.”

Another standout newcomer was junior Brielle Nguyen, who joins UCLA this season as a transfer from Illinois. Nguyen was named second-team All-Big Ten last year and scored career highs of 9.9 on both floor exercise and balance beam. While Nguyen did not compete against Ohio State, she performed an exhibition routine on balance beam.

“She’s only been training with us since Dec. 27th when we came back from break,” Ross said. “She’s definitely going to earn her spot in the lineup this year and it was a really solid performance for her.”

The Bruins opened the season with a team score of 196.25 – three points better than the Buckeyes – but Ross said there are a lot of places where their routines can find extra tenths of a point.

“We just have to not give up tenths on our landings,” Ross said. “That was the struggle with us last year, so I feel like in practice we’ve definitely been improving on that, but I think when it comes to the pressure sets we need to improve on being able to hit those solid landings.”