No. 6 UCLA gymnastics returns for 2nd home meet of season against Arizona State

After posting their second-highest score of the season against their rival, the Red Rocks, the Bruins will return to familiar energy this weekend.

No. 6 UCLA gymnastics will face off against No. 20 Arizona State in its second home meet of the season Saturday. After the Bruins tied Oregon State and recorded the then-highest floor score in the country this season in their home opener in Pauley Pavilion two weeks ago, coach Janelle McDonald said she is excited for the chance to return home.

“The energy in Pauley is just incredible,” McDonald said. “It’s a historical building, and to be able to represent UCLA gymnastics in it and have so much fun with our team is … something I’m looking forward to replicating this weekend.”

UCLA is coming off a meet against No. 4 Utah in which it recorded a season low on floor and a season high on beam in a 198.200-197.450 loss.

Sophomore Emily Lee said it was difficult for the Bruins to adjust to the opposing crowd’s energy at first, but they were ultimately able to channel it into a successful performance.

“Knowing that that energy isn’t really directed towards us, it kind of makes it harder to compete,” Lee said. “But we can’t afford to think like that. So when the crowd does cheer, energy is energy, and we try to use it to the best of our advantage.”

In addition to their low floor rotation, the Bruins posted their second-lowest scores of the season on both vault and bars against the Red Rocks.

McDonald said the main focuses in practice this week were cleaning up landings and focusing on details on those two events.

“Landings are absolutely something that I took away from last weekend that we need to get better at,” McDonald said. “On vault, we don’t have a whole lineup of 10.0 start values yet, … and on bars, I think we only stuck two landings this past weekend.”

A welcome member of the blue and gold’s bars lineups in 2023 has been sophomore Ana Padurariu, who has made an appearance on the event in four of five meets. In 2022, Padurariu competed on bars 11 times but only notched a 9.800 or above on four occasions. This season, she has scored at least a 9.850 in every appearance.

Padurariu’s scores have contributed to UCLA’s overall improvement on bars. In 2022, the team averaged a 49.010 on the event in the regular season. Five weeks into 2023, it is averaging a 49.440.

Padurariu said last year’s performances motivated her to improve on the event, especially with the assistance of McDonald.

“I did have a little bit of a mindset that I wanted to get revenge from last year,” Padurariu said. “Knowing that Janelle was kind of known for her bar work just made me really hopeful and really excited to work with her.”

As the Bruins near the halfway point of the season, their No. 6 ranking places them in contention for a spot in the national championships. But Padurariu said they’re approaching the season meet by meet without thinking about the postseason.

“Thinking too far into the future is not always too beneficial,” Padurariu said. “Being able to better ourselves right now and just looking forward to the next competition, I think that’s what’s most important.”

Padurariu and the Bruins will begin competition against the Sun Devils at 2 p.m. on Saturday.