No. 16 Bears Look to Shine at Pac-12 Championship - California Golden Bears Athletics

Saturday, March 18

Stanford, Calif.

1:00 PM

California

Pac-12 Championships - Session #1

Photo by: cal.isiphotos.com

3/16/2017 5:54 PM | Women's Gymnastics

Meet Notes: Pac-12 Championships

By: Cal Athletics

Pac-12 Women's Gymnastics Championships

Saturday, March 18 | Session 1: 1 PM PT // Session 2: 6 PM PT | Maples Pavilion | Stanford, Calif.

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Postseason play begins this weekend when California women's gymnastics takes the short trip down to the Farm for the Pac-12 Gymnastics Championships, set for Saturday from Stanford's Maples Pavilion. The Golden Bears are the top seed in the afternoon session, which features Cal, Arizona, Stanford and Arizona State at 1 p.m. UCLA, Utah, Oregon State and Washington will compete in the 6 p.m. session, with both sessions airing live on Pac-12 Network.

Fans can follow the meet online by watching at www.pac-12.com/live or by downloading the Pac-12 Now app. Live stats can be accessed via the women's gymnastics schedule page on CalBears.com. Follow @CalWGym on Twitter and Instagram for updates, behind-the-scenes photos and videos and the latest information, and like Facebook.com/CalWGym for more on the Bears.

BY THE NUMBERS

49.325
For the second week in a row, California put up a 49.325 on beam. The total ranks as the second-highest on the event in school history.

3rd
Cal's highest finish at the Pac-12 Championships was third in 2014 with a 196.550. However, Cal's highest score at the conference championship event was last season's 196.725. The Bears finished fourth in 2016.

5
California gymnasts own five conference individual event titles. Toni-Ann Williams was the Bears' last conference champion, earning the floor crown in 2016 with a 9.925.

ROTATION ORDER

Team seedings for Saturday's event were based on NCAA RQS. Team in each session got to select the event they'll start on, with preference given to the highest seeds. Rotation order for Saturday is as follows:

Starting Event   Session I    Session II
Vault   #5 Cal   #1 UCLA
Uneven Bars   #7 Stanford   #2 Utah
Balance Beam   #6 Arizona   #4 Washington
Floor Exercise   #8 Arizona St.   #3 Oregon St.

CAL AT THE PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Golden Bears have yet to claim a Pac-12 title, but came close in 2014, finishing third when they hosted the event in Haas Pavilion in Berkeley. Cal won the NorPac Conference title in 1984 before gymnastics joined the Pacific conference in 1987.

Individually, five Cal gymnasts have been crowned Pac-12 Champions, including one Bear currently on Cal's roster. Toni-Ann Williams won floor at the 2016 Pac-12 Championships with a 9.925, earning Cal's first conference floor title since 1997 and second floor title all-time. Williams became the first individual event champion on any apparatus since My-Lan Dodd's title-winning 9.90 on beam in 2004.

LAST YEAR AT THE PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Golden Bears turned in their highest Pac-12 Championships total in school history,a 196.725, to finish fourth overall at the 2016 conference championship event in Washington's Alaska Airlines Arena. Toni-Ann Williams became Cal's first individual event champion in more than a decade, logging a 9.925 on floor to earn Cal's second floor title in conference history.

UCLA won the team championship with a 197.250, ollowed by Oregon State and Utah in a tie for second with a pair of 196.925s. Cal finished ahead of Stanford (196.125), Arizona (195.525), Washington (195.300) and Arizona State (191.725).

Arianna Robinson was second on vault with a career-high 9.90, and Zoe Draghi was third on floor with a 9.90. As a team, Cal matched the then-fourth highest floor total (49.375) and fifth-highest beam total (49.250) in school history.

Head coach Justin Howell was named the Pac-12 Coach of the Year for the second time in four seasons.

AWARDS SEASON HAS ARRIVED

The beginning of championship season also heralds in awards season, and this weekend Cal's gymnasts have the opportunity to pick up multiple awards. Among the yearly awards up for grabs this week are: Gymnast of the Year, Specialist of the Year, Freshman/Newcomer of the Year, Coach of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The Bears have six awards from among those categories to date:

Freshman/Newcomer of the Year: Serena Leong (2013), Toni-Ann Williams (2015)
Coach of the Year: Alfie Mitchell (1994), Cari DuBois (2003), Justin Howell (2013, 2016)
Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Alicia Asturias (2014)

PAC-12 PREDICTIONS

Coaches around the conference have predicted that the Bears will finish fourth in the Pac-12 this season, just one point behind third-place Stanford. UCLA was selected to repeat as the conference champion. The exact breakdown of points is as follows:
1. UCLA (5 first-place votes) – 47 points
2. Utah (3 first-place votes) – 45 points
3. Stanford -- 33 points
4. California -- 32 points
5. Oregon State -- 25 points
6. Arizona -- 22 points
7. Washington -- 13 points
8. Arizona State -- 7 points

WHAT'S AN RQS, AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Beginning in week eight of the season, women's gymnastics programs around the country earn their rankings based on their Regional Qualifying Score, or RQS. The RQS is determined using a team's top six scores of the season, three of which must be from an away meet. Of the six, the highest score is dropped and the remaining five are averaged. RQS determines seeding at conference championships and in NCAA postseason meets.

With a 196.400 RQS, Cal earned the fifth overall seed to the Pac-12 Championships, and will compete with 6th-seeded Arizona, 7th-seeded Stanford and 8th-seeded Arizona State. The conference's top four seeds -- led by UCLA, then Utah, Oregon State and Washington -- will compete in the second session.

LAST TIME OUT

California's senior class wrapped up their careers in Haas Pavilion by leading the Golden Bears to a 196.775 against defending national champion and top-ranked Oklahoma. The Sooners dealt the Bears their lone home loss of the season with a 197.800. Highlights:
• The Bears logged their second-highest beam score in school history for the second week in a row, a 49.325.
• Emily Richardson won the beam title by matching her career-high 9.90.
• Richardson also matched a career-best 9.875 on vault.
• Zoe Draghi matched her career-high 9.925 on floor.
• Jessica Howe returned to the lineup for the first time all season to help Cal with a 9.825 on beam.
• Amber Takara scored a season-high 9.80 on vault.
• Chelsea Shu set a career-high 9.875 on beam.
• Rachael Mastrangelo made her first career appearance on vault, tallying a 9.775, and Sofie Seilnacht debuted for the first time on floor with a 9.025.

BEAM QUEENS

California continues its reign over the balance beam in 2017, most recently posting back-to-back 49.325s on the event, a total that ranks as the second-highest in school history. Cal has claimed a beam title in seven of 10 meets this season, and swept the beam event in three meets this season.

Desiree Palomares is the latest queen of the beam among the Bears with a team-best four titles, including three consecutive to start the season. She has matched her career-high 9.90 on the event twice in 2017. At Nebraska's Masters Classic, Sofie Seilnacht scored a career-high 9.925 to win the event. It was just the fifth 9.925 on beam in program history, and among the top nine scores on beam in school history (four 9.95s, five 9.925s). Alicia Gallarzo also owns one beam title, using a career-best 9.875 against Arizona State for her first crown on the apparatus. Against Oklahoma, Emily Richardson matched a career-high 9.90 to pick up Cal's latest beam title.

Once considered Cal's worst event, the Bears have made significant improvement on the apparatus under coaches Justin Howell and Liz Crandall-Howell. The Bears owned a 48.285 RQS and ranked 44th in the country on beam in 2012, prior to the duo taking the lead in Berkeley. In 2016, Cal finished 13th on beam with a 49.205 RQS -- an improvement of nearly one point and 31 spots in the rankings. The Bears currently rank 14th on beam and are averaging 49.115 with an RQS of 49.225 and a high of 49.325.

RANKED ON THE ROAD TO NATIONALS

Cal is set to face eight opponents who were ranked in the Road to Nationals preseason top 25 this season, including three in the top 10: top-ranked Oklahoma, UCLA (No. 4), Utah (6), Stanford (11), Nebraska (12), Oregon State (13), Arizona (18) and Washington (20). Additionally, seven of the Pac-12's eight gymnastics programs also ranked in the top 25 in the preseason rankings.

The Bears are 5-4 against ranked opponents this season. Cal's results against top 25 ranked opponents so far in 2017 (using rankings at time of competition):
No. 11 Stanford -- W, 195.325-193.250
No. 24 Iowa -- W, 195.550-194.400
No. 17 Washington -- W, 196.300-195.325
No. 4 Utah -- L, 196.450-195.725
No. 12 Oregon State -- W, 197.075-196.825
No. 12 Nebraska -- L, 197.175-196.400
No. 24 Utah State -- W, 196.400-196.200
No. 4 UCLA -- L, 197.525-196.800
No. 1 Oklahoma -- L, 197.800-196.775

NEXT ROTATION

Cal awaits the announcement of the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championship field, which will take place at 1 p.m. PT on Monday, March 20. The show will air live on NCAA.com.