Scouting report: UCLA gymnastics vs. Utah

No. 22 UCLA gymnastics (1-0, 1-0 Pac-12) will face its toughest test of the season when it matches up against No. 3 Utah (6-0, 2-0) on Friday at home. What had become a bona fide rivalry – featuring a walk-off perfect 10 by the Red Rocks in Pauley Pavillion during the 2020 season – has turned into an uphill battle for the Bruins, as UCLA has lost four of its last five meets against Utah. Here is this week’s scouting report from Nico Edgar – who is kicking himself for getting COVID-19 the week his hometown team comes to Los Angeles.

UCLA
Strength: Beam
Weakness: Floor
X-factor: Brooklyn Moors

A season ago, UCLA struggled mightily on beam but still managed to stand out on floor. This season? Not so much.

The Bruins come into Friday’s meet ranked 11th in the country on beam, eight slots higher than their final ranking last season. Now, is UCLA a beam team? Maybe not quite yet, but it does have as many meets with scores above 49.200 on the event this season as it did all of last year.

A healthy senior Norah Flatley and the emergence of freshman Ana Padurariu in the leadoff spot has stabilized a beam lineup that too often spiraled into disaster for the Bruins last season. Through three meets, they have combined to hit five of six beam routines and boast season-high scores of 9.900. All of these, with the addition of Olympian and freshman Jordan Chiles to the beam lineup last weekend, should continue to bolster the beam team’s ascendance.

I’d be remiss not to mention freshman Emma Malabuyo, whose 9.925 a week ago leads the team on beam this season and whose scores have ticked up each week.

That’s where the good news ends for UCLA. The Bruins rank 26th on floor and bars as well as 35th on vault in what has been a difficult start to the season. Injuries to senior Margzetta Frazier, senior Pauline Tratz and sophomore Frida Esparza have depleted the team’s depth.

While UCLA showed improvement on vault against Arizona with a season-high 49.250, the team tanked on floor in the last rotation with a chance to register scores above 49.000 in all four events for the first time this year.

Four gymnasts tallied sub-9.800 scores on floor in the meet against the Wildcats, an occurrence that hasn’t happened since February 2017, when Kyla Ross, JaNay Honest, Gracie Kramer and Stella Savvidou completed the feat.

The floor performance was marred by poor tumbling passes from multiple gymnasts, including freshman Brooklyn Moors coming up short on a tumbling pass landing, Malabuyo coming up short on a pair of tumbling passes and sophomore Chae Campbell under-rotating on two of her tumbling landings.

While the Bruins may be able to count on Campbell to register a higher score than 9.700 on floor in her second week removed from an ankle injury, the team needs Moors to step up in an event where she has previously demonstrated her prowess to have a chance against Utah.

Meanwhile, the blue and gold need to figure out how to get sophomore Sara Ulias right on bars. The bars specialist averaged a 9.871 on bars in her last seven meets of the 2021 campaign but has yet to eclipse a 9.675 in three routines this season.

Outside of Ulias, Chiles has shown her best routines as a Bruin on the event with a 9.900 and a 9.925. Continuing to give Chiles opportunities – who competed in the all-around for the first time against Arizona – raises UCLA’s ceiling significantly.

That being said, I truly believe the Bruins are better than what they have shown these first three weeks. The talent is there, and if the team can find some semblance of consistency, its first 197 of the season could be in the cards Friday.

Utah
Strength: Beam
Weakness: Vault
X-factor: Jaedyn Rucker

Utah will head to Westwood after slipping one spot in the rankings, but make no mistake, this team has all the looks of a championship contender.

The addition of Olympians and freshmen Amelie Morgan and Grace McCallum to a team that finished third at nationals last season has allowed the Red Rocks to mix and match lineups to a tune of a 197.488 average through four meets, even after Olympic alternate and freshman Kara Eaker went down with an ankle injury.

Utah paces the nation on beam and posted the highest beam score in the country – a 49.725 – against Stanford last weekend. With her perfect 10 in the anchor position, junior Maile O’Keefe became just the seventh Red Rock ever to score multiple perfect 10s on the apparatus.

Senior Cristal Isa has proven her worth as well, averaging a 9.931 on beam this season, good for fourth in the nation, with scores of at least 9.900 in all four of her routines.

With Isa and O’Keefe providing a high floor on beam every week, other gymnasts have shown their ceilings as well, as McCallum, Morgan and junior Abby Paulson have all registered scores of 9.900 or better on the event this season.

In total, the Red Rocks have hit 22 of 24 beam routines and 92 of 96 total routines.

It seems counterintuitive to put vault as this team’s weakness when it ranks sixth in the nation, miles above UCLA’s No. 35 spot, but the opening event has given Utah trouble in the past two weeks.

The Red Rocks’ scores have trended down after a 49.450 in week two, with their 49.125 versus the Cardinal marking a season-low, and also the first time the team did not stick a single landing on the apparatus.

If junior Jaedyn Rucker – who posted the highest score on vault at the NCAA championships with a 9.9875 – can consistently start reaching her ceiling on the event, it would go a long way toward stabilizing the Red Rocks’ vault lineup.

Rucker has shown her abilities on floor this season as well, with two 9.925 scores so far, but she scored a 9.775 on the event last week and failed to hit on vault as well. Rucker returning to form this week would help the Red Rocks keep the Bruins at a distance.

As long as Utah continues to showcase its trademark consistency – the team has tallied 16 consecutive meets with all four event scores above 49.000 – the Red Rocks should have no problem extending their win streak against the Bruins to four meets.

If not, UCLA may sneak away with a few event wins and the pride of taking a championship contender down to the wire.