BERKELEY – No. 14 California (9-4, 4-3 Pac-12) turned in another strong showing with their third-highest score of the season in a 197.025-196.750 loss to fifth-ranked Utah in the Golden Bears' Pac-12 regular-season finale.
Utah's .275 margin of victory is its slimmest win in all 16 meetings with the Bears, as Cal has consistently improved against the perennial powerhouse. The .275 difference tops last season's all-time margin of 196.00-195.575 in the NCAA Berkeley Regional.
"We never come into these meets focused on beating the other team," said Cal head coach Justin Howell. "It's really about what you can control. You can control effort and hitting routines and I thought we did a great job of that today."
Junior Zoe Draghi claimed the beam title with a career-high 9.90 to contribute to Cal's second-highest showing on the event this season. Five other Bears combined for eight the top-three finishes, including sophomore Toni-Ann Williams' runner-up finish in the all-around with a 39.175.
The Bears opened the meet strong with what would be the first of three 49.175 event totals in the afternoon. Leading the way for Cal were three scores of 9.85 by sophomores Williams and Alicia Gallarzo and freshman Sylvie Seilnacht, good for a share of third on the event. Junior Desiree Palomares led off the event by tying a season-high score of 9.80.
On bars, the Bears put up their second highest team score of the season with a 49.175. Freshman Sofie Seilnacht earned the opportunity to make her bars debut after a strong week of practice and did not disappoint, tallying a team-high score of 9.875 to claim silver.
"At the beginning of the year I didn't think I'd have a chance to do compete on bars but I've been working really hard and felt I did really well," Sofie Seilnacht said.
Seilnacht was just one of several shining bar routines Saturday, as junior Amber Takara matched a season high score in the event with a 9.85 while classmate Emily Richardson scored a season high 9.825. Both Cal's vault and bar team scores were just shy of its season high scores.
The success carried over to the beam for the Bears as they scored the second-highest beam score on the season with another 49.175. Cal's anchor in the event, Draghi scored a meet-high 9.90 for a new career-best, while three other gymnast were right behind her with scores of 9.85.
"This is the time of the year where everything starts to come together and everything is figured out so today was good," Draghi said.
Down .25 to the Utes entering the final rotation, Cal left it all out on the floor, opening with four consecutive scores above 9.825. Junior Jessica Howe matched a career-high 9.875 as the third Bear up, staking a claim to second place on the event. Williams followed with a solid 9.775 despite an out-of-bounds step on her final pass. Draghi once again anchored the event with a 9.85 to share third place with sophomore Arianna Robinson.
"Zoe has come a long way over the last three years," Howell said. "When she came in as freshman she was a little introverted. She's been working really hard and she has so much talent and just a beautiful artistic component to her gymnastics and we've really been working on allowing that to come out. She's really starting to do that."
A fall on beam for Utah tightened the gap, but the Utes finished with a 49.200 in the event and took at least a share of every event title.
NEXT UP
The Bears wrap up their home-meet slate on Friday, March 4 at 7 p.m. in a quad meet featuring Michigan State, Southern Utah and Lindenwood.
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