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Chiles lands it again: A perfect 10 leads UCLA gymnastics to victory over Maryland

Junior Jordan Chiles celebrates after hitting a routine in Pauley Pavilion. The Olympic champion posted her fifth career 10 on bars against Maryland, the first perfect score awarded on the event in the country this year. (Daily Bruin file photo)

Gymnastics


No. 11 UCLA197.550
No. 23 Maryland194.850

By Finn Karish

Jan. 18, 2025 7:23 p.m.

This post was updated Jan. 20 at 9:10 p.m.

Jordan Chiles knows how to get things started.

Need a perfect score to save the first rotation? The Olympic champion has it covered.

No. 11 UCLA gymnastics defeated Maryland 197.550-194.850 on Saturday at the XFINITY Center. The junior’s perfect 10 kicked off the Bruins’ day en route to tying their highest team total this year and an all-around winning night for Chiles.

“My high was my 10 on bars,” Chiles said. “Being in the Big Ten for the very first time and doing that for our school is definitely an honor.”

The Bruins had a slow start on bars after recording three scores 9.800 or lower, but Chiles anchored the rotation with a perfect 10 and stuck her full-twisting double back dismount. The mark was the NCAA bars champion’s fifth career 10 on the event and the nation’s first perfect mark on bars this season. 

“There’s unfinished business in everything that I do,” Chiles said. “I want an all-around title and an NCAA title as a team.” 

Graduate student Frida Esparza was the only other Bruin to contribute at least a 9.900 score to the Bruins’ 49.325 bars total.

On vault, senior Emily Lee and graduate students Brooklyn Moors and Chae Campbell either met or notched new season highs to start UCLA’s second rotation off hot. However, the Bruins lost momentum as the rotation progressed. 

“I was very proud of Brooklyn Moors and how she got out there and nailed her three events,” said coach Janelle McDonald. “It’s really special to see her having the year she is having as a senior.”

Chiles, who was UCLA’s top scorer in vault in its first two meets, mistimed her landing and received a 9.775. Freshman Mika Webster-Longin anchored the Bruins’ vault rotation, falling on her Yurchenko one-and-a-half to notch a team-low 9.200.

The Bruins’ 49.150 vault total was their highest on the event this season despite the fall.

Graduate student Brooklyn Moors poses while performing a floor routine in front of the Pauley Pavilion crowd. The Canadian Olympian posted her second 9.950 mark on the event in a row and hasn’t scored below a 9.900 this year.
(Daily Bruin file photo)

UCLA proved why it is the No. 4 floor team in the nation, posting only 9.850 scores or above following sophomore Katelyn Rosen’s fall in the lead-off position. Senior Emma Malabuyo bounced back to set the Bruins back on track, hitting her routine.

“I just leaned on my teammates,” Malabuyo said. “My normal is enough, so what I wanted to do was hit that floor routine and then pass along the energy to the next person.”

Freshman Macy McGowan scored a 9.900 career-high, and Chiles and Moors, the nation’s No. 5 floor worker, led the way with a pair of 9.950s.

The Bruins extended the gap to 2.125 points after posting a 49.525 in the third rotation – tied for the country’s second-best floor rotation of the year and trailing their nation-high 49.600 from last week.

Malabuyo anchored UCLA’s beam rotation with a near-perfect 9.975, marking one of six season-highs for the rotation. 

Lee led off her second event for the Bruins, scoring a season-high 9.925. Campbell and junior Ciena Alipio rounded out the Bruins’ four 9.900-or-higher scores on beam, chipping into the season-high 49.550 total.

“My scores have been getting better incrementally, which does help boost my confidence,” Alipio said. “I am really happy with the small corrections I made.”

Chiles, who was not originally in the beam lineup, stepped in last minute and replaced Rosen in the second spot. The two-time Olympian’s 9.775 mark was the lowest of the rotation, resulting in a dropped score.

The victory marked UCLA’s first-ever conference victory as members of the Big Ten before it heads back to Westwood for its home opener in Pauley Pavilion next weekend.

“This team gets to be the one to lay the foundation of who we are and how we show up in the Big Ten,” McDonald said. “They did just that.”

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