STANFORD, Calif. – It wasn't the first time this season that Cal's grit was put to the test, but once again 16th-ranked California women's gymnastics proved it was up to the task.
 
After entering Saturday's Pac-12 Championships as the top seed in the afternoon session, the Golden Bears found themselves at the bottom of the pack heading into the final rotation. Two falls on beam – Cal's best event – forced the Bears to count a low 9.375 to trail Stanford and Arizona.
 
The final-rotation rally saw the Bears produce their highest floor score of the season, a 49.300, to storm back to second place in the afternoon session. Cal tallied a 196.300 as the runner-up behind Stanford's 196.625, and finished ahead of Arizona (196.275) and Arizona State (195.600).
 
The Bears finished sixth overall, behind all four evening session teams. Utah won the Pac-12 Championship with a 197.925, and Oregon State took second with a 197.400. UCLA and Washington tied for third with a pair of 197.100s, followed by Stanford (5th), Cal (6th), Arizona (7th) and Arizona State (8th).
 
Cal entered the final rotation with a 147.000, nearly three-tenths behind Arizona (147.275) and nearly five-tenths behind Stanford (147.475). Charlie Owens sparked the Cal floor squad with a 9.825 to begin the final rotation. Sofie Seilnacht, who fell in the leadoff spot on beam, showed no signs of rattled nerves and set a career-high 9.85 on the event while grinning at her teammates the whole way through. The three gymnasts who followed her – Mariah Peterson (9.85), Arianna Robinson (9.875) and Zoe Draghi (9.90) – followed suit to power Cal to a season-best 49.300 on floor.
 
Peterson's 9.85 on floor marked her career-high and a total that she's scored each of the last three weeks, while Robinson took third in the session and Draghi was the runner-up.
 
Just one rotation earlier, Seilnacht fell on beam as the first competitor up. Chelsea Shu kept the Bears in the clear with a 9.825, but a fall from Desiree Palomares in the third spot meant Cal would be forced to count a fall in its beam total. Despite turning in back-to-back 49.325s in their last two meets – the second-highest beam score in school history – Cal finished beam with a 48.875. Alicia Gallarzo's career-best 9.925, which led the session, highlighted the rotation.
 
Beam was the lone event in which Cal scored below a 49.0. The Bears started the meet on vault, where the team scored an even 49.0, led by Peterson's first career-high total of the day, a 9.90. Her vault score led the afternoon session.
 
In rotation two, Cal turned in its second-best uneven bars total of the season with six solid routines for a 49.125. Shu's 9.875 was the highest score among the entire afternoon session competitors, and Emily Richardson logged a second-place finish with a rock solid 9.85.
 
NEXT UP
Cal awaits its NCAA Women's Gymnastics regional assignment. The selection show airs live on NCAA.com at 1 p.m. PT on Monday, March 20.  Regional qualifiers will compete at one of six regional sites, each featuring six teams, four all-around competitors and two individual specialists per event. The six regional sites in 2017 are: Fayetteville, Ark. (Arkansas), Gainesville, Fla. (Florida), Urbana-Champaign, Ill. (Illinois), Lincoln, Neb. (Nebraska), Seattle, Wash. (Washington) and Morgantown, W. Va. (West Virginia).
 
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