SAN JOSE, Calif. – Despite a shaky start for the No. 10 California women's gymnastics team, the Golden Bears built momentum through their final three events to win their third consecutive meet with a 194.875 victory over San Jose State (194.750) and UW-La Crosse (188.850) Friday in San Jose. Freshman Toni-Ann Williams claimed three event titles and the team tallied season-high totals on two events to improve to 7-0 this season.
With small mistakes in the last several meets stopping the Bears from reaching their true potential, the team set three goals for tonight's meet: pay no attention to the scores or performances of other teams, stay in the “Bear Bubble” and be totally invested in the moment of the team, and stay loose.
California head coach Justin Howell was pleased with his squad's ability to stick to their first two goals, but thought the team needed to improve upon keeping a rhythm and calm attitude throughout the meet.
“Our Achilles heel has been trying to be too perfect and trying to not make mistakes. You can't do that in our sport,” he said.
But Cal's aggressiveness paid off on several events as the Bears set season-high team totals on both floor and bars, and scored above 49.0 on vault. Williams won three of her four events and set career-highs on those events, including tying a program-record 9.95 on vault. In addition to the vault title, Williams shared her bars win with sophomore Charlie Owens with a career-high 9.875 and was the floor champion with a 9.925.
“The bottom line is Toni's an athlete through-and-through, and she's a competitor,” Howell said. “She's starting to realize her true potential she's seeing how much fun it is…It's just really fun to see her start to develop into that kind of gymnast and have some ownership over her talent.”
Cal got off to a poor start on the balance beam and couldn't quite recover in their first rotation as the Bears were forced to count a fall with a pair of mishaps on the event from Owens and Williams, who made her debut on beam. Sophomore Desiree Palomares led Cal with a 9.775 to finish in second place, and sophomore Dana Ho followed in third place with a 9.75 after turning in another consistent performance on the event. The Spartans led the Bears 48.500-47.775 after the first rotation, and UW-La Crosse trailed slightly behind with a 47.425.
“We melted down on beam, and there's no excuse for it. From the first routine on beam, we were tight. It's always tough to start on the beam but it shouldn't be an excuse. We're a good beam team and we have a lot of depth there,” Howell said.
The Bears recovered on floor with a pair of new career-highs for Williams (9.925) and freshman teammate Arianna Robinson (9.85), as well as a season-high 9.80 from Owens. Ho joined the competitive floor lineup for the first time in her career, tallying a 9.55 after stepping out of bounds on a strong pass. Cal's season-high 48.875 on floor was enough to bring the Bears within .2 of the Spartans, who remained in the lead 96.875-96.675. The Eagles held third place with a 93.625.
“Our floor lineup started to build some momentum and come back,” Howell said.
For the second consecutive week, the Bears rocked their vault lineup to score above a 49.0, highlighted by a program-high 9.95 from Williams. It is just the 10th 9.95 on vault in Cal history, and the first 9.95 on the event since January of 2014. Richardson showcased her vault for the first time to earn a strong 9.825, good for second place behind Williams. Every gymnast on the event produced a 9.725 or higher to help Cal to a 49.050 and propel the Bears to first place with a 145.725 total through three events. San Jose State fell just .1 behind with a 145.625, and UW-La Crosse tallied a 141.350.
“I thought we vaulted lights out. The team did their job and they were aggressive. That's all I can ask,” Howell said. “We had big vaults and landed well and that's what we've been working on in the gym.”
Cal carried its momentum onto bars to yield a team season-best of 49.150. Owens and Williams both logged 9.875s for new personal-bests and share the bars title, and Richardson scored a season-high 9.775. Junior Jordan Widener, who sat out all of 2013 after breaking her foot, marked her triumphant return on bars by matching a career-high 9.825.
“I feel like we're getting close to where we'll see some consistency and solidarity in our lineups, and then we can start gelling because the chemistry in each lineup is important. We're just not quite there yet,” Howell said. “The talent is there, and the gymnastics and difficulty is there. The things that they're doing look great, and this team is very exciting because we're young. They're starting to see that we have the ability to remain one of the top programs in the country.”
NEXT UP
Cal hosts its 2015 home opener on Sunday, Jan. 25 with a quad meet featuring Pac-12 rival Arizona State, Denver and San Jose State. The action is set to begin at 2 p.m. in Haas Pavilion.
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Individual Event Results (Top 3)
Beam Results
| Place | Gymnast | Team | Score |
|---|
| 1 |
Amy Bellingham |
*San Jose State University |
9.800 |
| 2 |
Desiree Palomares |
California |
9.775 |
| 3T |
Katie Won |
*San Jose State University |
9.750 |
| 3T |
Dana Ho |
California |
9.750 |
| 3T |
Marissa Unpingco |
*San Jose State University |
9.750 |
Floor Results
| Place | Gymnast | Team | Score |
|---|
| 1 |
Toni-Ann Williams |
California |
9.925 |
| 2T |
Cami Guyer |
*San Jose State University |
9.875 |
| 2T |
Alysssa Montalban |
*San Jose State University |
9.875 |
All-Around Results
| Place | Gymnast | Team | Score |
|---|
| 1 |
Katie Won |
*San Jose State University |
38.950 |
| 2 |
Maddie Herr |
*San Jose State University |
38.925 |
| 3 |
Toni-Ann Williams |
California |
38.675 |
