Cal Women's Gymnastics becomes Pittsburgh Regional Champion en rout to Nationals
No.7 Golden Bears advance to NCAA Championships on April 13-15 in Fort Worth, Texas
The 2023 season saw Cal Women’s Gymnastics making more program history in twice setting/resetting new program-best team score within the span of 48 hours and a second consecutive share of the Pac-12 Regular Season title. The Golden Bears added to that by winning their first NCAA Regional on Sunday.
Most importantly, Cal Bears are not done yet! They have earned a return trip back to the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships where they will look to make more history!
Cal Bears won the Pittsburgh Regional via a come-from-behind fashion. Opening on vault, Bears found themself in last place after posting a subpar team score of 49.275, a bit below their NQS of 49.370 and far short of the season-high 49.450. Cal bounced back on bars with a 49.525 team score (NQS of 49.575) which put them just 0.1 behind Michigan State for second place (top-two advances out of this quad meet).
A near-perfect beam rotation (9.9, 9.9, 9.9, 9.95, 9.95, 9.95) that earned 49.650, allowed Cal to essentially clinch at least a second place and a national championship berth. Golden Bears earned their gold moniker by finishing very strongly on floor exercise, earning another strong score of 49.625. When all the points were counted, Cal found themselves atop the regional final standings.
Cal clinched the win when Mya Lauzon hit on her floor routine, but eMjae Frazier got to end this meet on a high note!
Cal along with Florida, who were missing their top gymnast Trinity Thomas in this meet, punched their tickets to Fort Worth. They will be joined in one semifinal by No.6 LSU and No.14 Denver, who upset No.3 Michigan in the Denver Regional late Sunday. Cal was edged by LSU at a meet at LSU earlier this year after a last-minute score change in favor of the hometown Tigers. Cal Bears certainly could advance out of this half of the bracket to make their first final session in school history.
The other half of the bracket will include No.1 Oklahoma, No.8 Kentucky, No.4 UCLA, and No.5 Utah.
The top-two teams of each National Semifinal on April 13th will advance to the National Championship AKA “Final Four on the Floor” on Saturday, April 15th.
Cal returned to the NCAA Championship after narrowly missing out in 2022. Dickie Arena in Fort Worth is the same site as in 2021 when Cal last went to nationals. Since-graduated Maya Bordas made history at that meet as Cal’s first individual national champion by winning on the uneven bars.
This year’s Cal squad has both experience and youthful talent. It was particularly fitting that freshman eMjae Frazier, who made Cal history by earning 39.750 as an all-arounder, and senior Nevaeh DeSouza were the two Bears that got to place the “California” stickers on the bracket.
Check out all four of eMjaae Frazier’s routines below:
You can retroactively relive the Pittsburgh Regional final via my live blog post here.
ROLL ON YOU BEARS!
I was a little bit nervous after the first rotation - but watching the women just go 9.9 9.9 9.9 9.95 9.95 9.95 on the beam (3rd rotation) and I felt pretty safe.
Congratulations!