BERKELEY, Calif. -- No. 17 California is off to its best start in program history with a 195.900 victory in its home opener after topping No. 15 Denver (195.500), San Jose State (194.200) and Arizona State (192.650) at a quad meet in Haas Pavilion on Sunday afternoon. Cal is now 10-0 overall and 2-0 in Pac-12 action.
“We killed it on vault, and we killed it on bars and floor,” said Cal head coach Justin Howell. “Although we still have room for improvement, I was just happy to see them perform at a level at which we have known they could perform, and for them to feel that tonight and reap the rewards was great. I'm thankful for the performances of our team tonight.”
A loud and enthusiastic crowd of more than 700 fueled the Bears to career-high totals on 10 routines as the Bears turned in season-high team scores on both vault and floor to sweep every event title in Sunday's meet, including the all-around. Freshman Toni-Ann Williams continued her stellar 2015 campaign by logging the fifth-highest all-around score in program history, a 39.475, to match My-Lan Dodd's score from March 2003. Sophomore Charlie Owens also posted a strong all-around performance, adding a career-high 39.325 to the team total.
In addition to winning the all-around, Williams was crowned vault, bars and floor champion. She shared her bars title with Owens and sophomore Emily Richardson, who set a career-high on the event. Sophomore Desiree Palomares was beam champion with a 9.85. Williams, Owens and freshman Arianna Robinson all tallied 9.90s or better on an event during the afternoon.
“It feels amazing to have our athletes get rewarded and score 9.95s and 9.925s and 9.90s, and I think that gets everybody pumped up,” Howell said. “It gets the crowd pumped up and gets the gymnasts pumped up and everybody just rolls off of that when that starts happening.”
The Bears began the meet on vault and got right to business with a career-high 9.80 opening vault from Palomares. Owens added a 9.85 and Robinson earned a 9.90 to set their own personal-bests on the event. Williams' 9.925 in the fifth spot on the rotation earned her the event title, while Robinson was the runner-up. For the team's strong efforts, Cal carried a season-best 49.250 on vault into its next rotation to lead the meet.
Cal continued to hit every single routine as it moved on to the uneven bars, totaling the team's second-highest bars score of the season with a 49.050. Richardson led the team off with a career-high 9.825 – a mark that would be repeated by Owens and Williams for all three Bears to share the title on the event. The meet was quickly becoming a two-team race for first place, with Denver leading Cal 98.375- 98.300.
The balance beam once again proved to be Cal's weakest event, and the only event the Bears went sub-49 in. The rotation opened with a fall, but Owens kept her team's momentum going with a 9.75 in the team's second performance on the event.
“To start with a fall and have Charlie bounce back was great. She didn't let that rattle her and got up and started us off from there,” Howell said.
After Owens, sophomore Dana Ho added a career-high 9.825 for a performance that would eventually earn her second place on beam. Palomares followed by matching her career-high 9.85 to win the event. Paz made her season debut, earning a 9.100, and Williams anchored the event for a 9.775.
“We're still struggling to find our rhythm and find who should start the event for us. We had moments where we had to bounce back, so I felt for the most part we had to claw and scratch our way through beam and it wasn't what we're capable of doing,” Howell said.
As the Bears headed to floor, Denver still led the meet with a 147.05 to Cal's 146.600. Glancing up at the scoreboard, Howell knew his team needed to rock their final rotation to pull away with the win.
“We put all of our energy into those floor routines and all of our energy into every single performance, and we had a fantastic result,” he said.
Cal fed off the fan energy to tally a season-high 49.300, which is also the fourth-highest score on the event in program history, as sophomore Zoe Draghi (9.875), Owens (9.90) and Williams (9.95) all set career-highs on floor.
“We felt it on the floor. We feed off of that, and we will perform when the energy level is like that,” Howell said.
Williams was the event's champion with a 9.95, which was just the fifth 9.95 on floor in Cal history and was last logged by Stephanie Kim in February 2004. Ho also made her debut on the event.
Even with the strong team score, the coaching staff saw room for improvement.
“The more exciting thing to us as coaches is that it wasn't a perfect floor rotation. We had a lot of landing issues, so I think that that showed us our potential,” Howell said.
Before Sunday's quad meet win, the Bears had never gone undefeated through four meets and had never posted a 10-0 record. In 2002 and 1992, Cal went undefeated through three meets before losing in the fourth, and in 1992 the Bears were 6-0 before dropping their first meet.
“We really encouraged them to celebrate tonight, and to celebrate their gymnastics, celebrate their passion for the sport and celebrate their teammates when they did a good routine,” Howell said.
NEXT UP
Cal hits the road for its first true away meet of the season at UCLA. The Bears meet the Bruins at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 1 in a meet televised live on the Pac-12 Networks.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Join Cal Women's Gymnastics in the social media realm for behind-the-scenes access to the Bears. Follow Cal on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for meet scores, practice updates, exclusive photos, videos and more. Find Cal at:
• Twitter: @CalWGym
• Facebook: Facebook.com/CalWomensGymnastics
• Instagram: @CalWGym
Individual Event Results (Top 3)
| Uneven Parallel Bars Results |
|
| Place | Gymnast | Team | Score |
|---|
| 1 |
Desiree Palomares |
California |
9.850 |
| 2 |
Dana Ho |
California |
9.825 |
| 3 |
Julia Ross |
Denver |
9.800 |
| 3 |
Maddie Herr |
San Jose State |
9.800 |
| Place | Gymnast | Team | Score |
|---|
| 1 |
Toni-Ann Williams |
California |
9.950 |
| 2 |
Charlie Owens |
California |
9.900 |
| 2 |
Tasha Sundby |
Arizona State |
9.900 |
| 2 |
Nina McGee |
Denver |
9.900 |
