UCLA gymnastics tops leaderboard in second round of NCAA Raleigh Regional

This post was updated March 31 at 8:10 p.m.

The Bruins only needed a top-two finish to advance to the regional finals Saturday.

No. 14 UCLA gymnastics did that and more Thursday, finishing atop the leaderboard in the second session of the NCAA Raleigh Regional with a 197.800. The blue and gold beat out the defending national champion No. 3 Michigan, as well as No. 20 Maryland and North Carolina, to claim its spot in the regional finals.

Coach Chris Waller said Thursday’s meet was the culmination of everything his team has been working toward this season.

“The coaches, the staff and all the athletes and myself have been literally trying to come at this in a million different ways and the progress has been painfully slow,” Waller said. “It’s just so rewarding to feel like, ‘Well, that’s what we’ve been working for.’”

The Bruins had started to find their footing on vault at the close of the regular season with back-to-back scores above 49.400 after not reaching that mark once previously. At the Pac-12 championships March 19, however, UCLA regressed with a 49.025.

But Thursday, the Bruins bounced back with a 49.400 to open the meet, led by a career-high 9.925 from freshman Jordan Chiles and another 9.925 from sophomore Chae Campbell in the anchor spot. Through one rotation, the blue and gold led the field. 

Chiles said getting off to a good start on vault helped propel the Bruins through the rest of the meet.

“Vault definitely, I would have to say when we go out there and we do what we do and the energy is high, we will continue and take that energy with us all the way till the end,” Chiles said.

While the vault score wasn’t quite a season-high for UCLA, the team tied a season-best on bars with a 49.475. On what has been their worst event this season, the Bruins posted four 9.900-plus scores in the rotation, including a 9.950 and 9.925 from Chiles and senior Norah Flatley, respectively.

Despite registering scores above 9.900 in her first two routines, Chiles had UCLA’s first major mistake of the evening with a fall in the second spot on beam, requiring four straight hits from the Bruins to avoid counting the mistake.

The rest of the lineup did just that – featuring a save from freshman Emma Malabuyo in the anchor spot – as UCLA went 49.300 on the apparatus to hold onto its lead through three rotations.

Flatley said the rest of the season has prepared the team for moments like those.

“Challenges build character, and we’ve had a lot of challenges this year,” Flatley said. “I’d say at this point, we should be pretty invincible to face anything that happens. Even if mistakes happen, we’re just going to pick up and keep moving and try to finish to the best of our abilities.”

The Bruins left no doubt in their final rotation, widening their lead over the Wolverines behind a 49.625 on floor. The rotation included a career-high 9.925 from freshman Brooklyn Moors and five total 9.900-plus scores, as Chiles and Campbell closed out the meet with back-to-back 9.950s.

Chiles said she takes her former elite experiences competing on some of the biggest stages in the sport into her NCAA career.

“It’s similar, but it’s different at the same time,” Chiles said. “Obviously being in the Olympic arena compared to an NCAA arena can be two different sceneries, but I always have that mindset of no matter what just keep pushing, keep fighting and the results at the end will be what they need to be.”

Flatley kicked off the floor rotation with a 9.900 to reach a 39.575 in the all-around, which ranked first among all competitors in the session. Campbell and Chiles shared both the vault and floor titles for the evening session, while Chiles also tied for the top bars score of the competition.

The 197.800 marked nearly a full point increase over the Bruins’ previous season-high road score.

Waller said preparing for the road environment in practice made the difference for his team Thursday.

“We literally needed to figure out how to put together an away meet,” Waller said. “It’s been this constant chipping away at figuring it out and that superseded anything else. … If you watch the sideline, what was going on, it literally was the same thing we did in our dress rehearsals a week ago.”

In the first session of the NCAA Raleigh Regional, No. 6 LSU was upset by No. 11 Missouri and No. 22 Iowa. As a result, UCLA will match up against Michigan, Missouri and Iowa on Saturday afternoon, with two berths to the NCAA championships on the line.

“Everybody is individual in what they need to do for themselves but for me personally, I just need to kind of let go of what happened tonight even though it’s really exciting,” Flately said. “It already happened and it’s over. So I’m just focused on Saturday and it being a whole new meet and a whole new opportunity to show what this team is made of.”

Competition Saturday will begin at 2 p.m.