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Woochifer
Joined: 12/15/11 Posts: 9,123
WGym: Meet The Bruins exhibition 12/14 2pm PT BTN+
Posted Tue, Dec 10 4:44 pm (Edited Tue, Dec 10 4:50 pm)
The first gymnastics rankings came out today, and the Bruins come into the season ranked #10. They're the highest ranked team in the B1G, but otherwise the Top 10 is loaded with teams from the SEC, with #1 Oklahoma now in the SEC.

https://uclabruins.com/news/2024/12/10/ucla-gymnastics-ranked-no-10-in-preseason-coaches-poll

UCLA is coming off a tumultuous off season that saw sophomore All-American Selena Harris dismissed from the team. Fortunately, Olympic gold medalist Jordan Chiles is returning to campus next month and will compete in the all-around competitions again. UCLA brings back several key gymnasts like All-American grad student Chae Campbell. But, they might once again lack the depth needed to compete with the top teams. I'm not sure if the rankings factor in the return of Chiles, who's not yet officially listed on the roster (she's still on her post-Olympic tour).

The Bruins' season starts on Saturday with the annual Meet The Bruins exhibition at Pauley. The event starts at 2pm PT and will be shown on BTN+.

https://uclabruins.com/news/2024/12/9/ucla-gymnastics-squad-to-debut-dec-14-at-meet-the-bruins

The regular season will begin on January 4 down in Oceanside (presumably at the newly opened Frontwave Arena, but I don't see any ticket info listed) with a tri-meet against former Pac-12 rivals #4 Cal and #19 Oregon State. This is a newly added event, so the lineup and venue might still change.
Woochifer
Joined: 12/15/11 Posts: 9,123
WGym: #10 UCLA starts season vs #4 Cal and #19 OSU on Sat
Posted Thu, Jan 02 1:19 pm (Edited Thu, Jan 02 1:19 pm)
In response to WGym: Meet The Bruins exhibition 12/14 2pm PT BTN+ (Woochifer)
The Bruins travel down to Oceanside for a two-session American Gold Collegiate Gymnastics Classic on Saturday. The Bruins' session will include former Pac-12 rivals Cal and Oregon State. The event starts at 12:30pm PT. The late session will feature #30 Arizona, #31 Southern Utah, and Wilberforce and start at 6:30pm.

https://uclabruins.com/documents/2025/1/1/1-AmericanGold.pdf

In the previous post, I noted that there was no ticket info shown on the official schedule, and apparently the ticket link was not posted until last week. From what I've been reading on the 247 site, the event has been a cluster****. The ticketing has been a mess with non-existent promotion and outreach, and the organizers were apparently unaware the events were supposed to take place on podiums (to simulate the conditions at the NCAA championship).

TV coverage and live scoring are currently TBD.

UCLA hosted the intrasquad Meet The Bruins exhibition a couple of weeks ago. No scores were posted for the event, so there's no publicly shared measure of where the individual gymnasts are starting off.
Woochifer
Joined: 12/15/11 Posts: 9,123
WGym: Low score for #10 UCLA to start season
Posted Mon, Jan 06 12:06 pm
In response to WGym: #10 UCLA starts season vs #4 Cal and #19 OSU on Sat (Woochifer)
The Bruins began the season on bars, and that turned into one of their most disastrous rotations in recent memory, as they had 2 falls and a low score. That rotation put the Bruins out of contention for the meet, and led to a 195.250 score. Jordan Chiles competed in 3 events, scoring 9.9 on both beam and vault, and a low score by her standards of 9.775 on floor (which is normally her best event).

#4 Cal won the three-way meet with a relatively low 196.275 score. Oregon State came in 2nd with a 195.775 score.

It remains to be seen if the scoring is low this season, or if the 3 teams were overrated in the preseason. Even for an early season meet, these are not the scores that teams with national aspirations want to see. Unlike in other sports, the rankings and postseason placements are determined by the actual scoring.
Woochifer
Joined: 12/15/11 Posts: 9,123
WGym: UCLA bounces back w/ session win at OKC 197.550
Posted Mon, Jan 13 5:31 pm
In response to WGym: Meet The Bruins exhibition 12/14 2pm PT BTN+ (Woochifer)
The Sprouts Collegiate Quad in OKC is the most star-studded meet of the season, and the Bruins needed a bounceback after their subpar opening meet against #4 Cal and #19 Oregon State.

Bruins got exactly that as they won their session with a very good score of 197.550. The other teams in the Bruins' session were Kentucky, Ohio State, and Arkansas (led by former UCLA assistant coach and Olympian Jordyn Wieber, and assisted by former UCLA All-American Kyla Ross). For the other teams, this was their first meet, so the Bruins had the advantage of having already competed in their opener.

https://uclabruins.com/news/2025/1/11/gymnastics-ucla-wins-session-3-of-sprouts-collegiate-quad

The session was highlighted by Jordan Chiles scoring a near perfect 9.975 with her new Prince-themed floor routine that is already going viral.

UCLA competed in the evening session on ESPN2. They were not in the afternoon session that was televised on ABC and included heavyweights #1 Oklahoma, #2 LSU, #4 Cal, and #6 Utah. UCLA's score would have placed them 3rd in that session. If UCLA can find better consistency this season like they did in their session, they have a very good chance of making the NCAA Championship meet.

UCLA starts B1G competition next weekend against Maryland.
Woochifer
Joined: 12/15/11 Posts: 9,123
ESPN article on Chiles' return and her new viral routine
Posted Wed, Jan 15 1:52 pm
In response to WGym: Meet The Bruins exhibition 12/14 2pm PT BTN+ (Woochifer)
Great article from ESPN covering Jordan Chiles' return to UCLA and collegiate competition after winning the team gold in Paris last summer. Her new floor routine featuring Prince is going viral after she had a near perfect score in last weekend's nationally televised meet in OKC.

This wasn't something that she just cooked up over the last few weeks after returning to campus. Apparently, she'd been brainstorming ideas with assistant coach and floor choreographer BJ Das since wrapping up the postseason in 2023. Chiles knew that she wanted to return to college with a "banger" of a routine after going viral with her hip-hop routine two years ago. So, she started putting the elements together in the fall when she was still doing the post-Olympic tour. She did not debut it at the Meet The Bruins exhibition -- for that event, she used her elite routine. She debuted it at the Oceanside meet, but it was still rough around the edges and received a low (by her standards) score. This past weekend though, people took notice.

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/43401683/ucla-ncaa-gymnastics-jordan-chiles-prince-viral-floor-routine

Interesting to note that music from Purple Rain is now viewed as "parents music."

After the turmoil from last season, Chiles' return seems to have energized the Bruin locker room and practice gym. By all accounts, Chiles has been a great teammate since she first joined the Bruins in 2022. Because she has sat out 3 full seasons training for the Olympics, she's only a junior at age 23.

After winning team gold with Team USA, and two NCAA individual titles, her main goal is now the team championship with UCLA. The Bruins' score from last weekend was the 3rd highest so far this season. If the Bruins can stay in that range consistently, they can make it back to the NCAA finals where anything can happen.