California women's gymnastics looks for its second NCAA championship berth in three years when the ninth-ranked Golden Bears take on the NCAA Salt Lake City Regional field on Saturday. The Bears, who are the No. 2 seed in the Salt Lake City Regional, take on top-seeded and fourth-ranked Utah, plus No. 16 Auburn, No. 21 BYU, Stanford and Southern Utah. Meet time is set for 3 p.m. PT/4 p.m. MT in the Jon M. Huntsman Center.

With a top-two finish in Salt Lake City, the Bears can punch their ticket to the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships for the second time in three years, and the third time in program history. Cal last qualified for the national championship event in 2016, finishing second at the NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional to break a 24-year drought for the program.

Fans can follow the meet online by watching the live stream or viewing live stats, which 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' the Bears on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/calwgym.

NUMBERS TO KNOW

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Cal coaches Justin Howell and Liz Crandall-Howell have led three Golden Bears to NCAA Regional individual titles in their six-year career in Berkeley. Cal's most recent regional champion is Desiree Palomares, who won beam at the NCAA Fayetteville Regional last season. Current Bear Toni-Ann Williams won vault in 2015, and Dallas Crawford won bars in 2014.
196.300
Cal's program-high total at an NCAA Regional event is 196.300, which led to a fifth-place finish at last year's NCAA Fayetteville Regional. However, the Bears scored a 195.925 at the NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional in 2016 to punch a ticket to the NCAA Championships.
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Five different Golden Bears are ranked in the nation's top 50 on an event -- Toni-Ann Williams (Floor - 7th, All-Around - 11th, Vault - 19th, Beam - 34th), Arianna Robinson (Vault - 19th), Nina Schank (Bars - 20th), Kyana George (All-Around - 32nd) and Sofie Seilnacht (Beam - 49th).

ROTATION ORDER

For regional competition, there will be one session of six rotations with four events and two byes. The
starting event for each team is based on a predetermined random draw. California will begin the meet on beam and then proceed in Olympic order, closing the meet on the uneven bars.

ROAD TO NATIONALS

Salt Lake City is one of six predetermined host sites on the road to the 2018 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships, which will be held April 20 and 21 in St. Louis, Mo. The six regional sites also include:  Tuscaloosa, Ala. (Alabama), Raleigh, N.C. (NC State), Columbus, Ohio (Ohio State), University Park, Penn. (Penn State) and Minneapolis, Minn. (Minnesota). 

Each regional site features six teams, four all-around competitors who are not part of teams who qualified for regional competition and two individual event specialists for each event who met the minimum Regional Qualifying Score (RQS), all vying for spots at the Championships.

The top two teams from each regional as well as 24 all-around competitors and 24 individual event specialists who are not already on an advancing team will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.

CAL IN NCAA REGIONAL COMPETITION

Cal is seeking its first team regional title and third berth to the Championships in school history. This year marks the sixth consecutive season the Bears have qualified for regional competition as a team, and the 23rd season overall. Cal has had representation at regionals 32 times in the 37-year history of NCAA Women's Gymnastics.

In 2016, the Bears qualified for the NCAA Women's Gymnastics National Championships for the first time in 24 years after taking second at the NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional with a 195.925.  In 1992, a third-place finish in Cal's own Berkeley Regional propelled the program to its first nationals trip to the in school history.

Individually, five Cal gymnasts have combined for six regional event titles.

LAST YEAR AT THE NCAA FAYETTEVILLE REGIONAL

The Golden Bears fell shy of clinching their second consecutive NCAA Championships berth in program history after taking fifth at the NCAA Fayetteville Regional on April 1. Cal posted a 196.300 for the program's all-time record at a regional event, but Utah (197.150) and Denver (197.050) advanced out of Fayetteville. Auburn and Arkansas tied for third with a pair of 196.600s, and Cal finished ahead of Central Michigan's 195.675. Cal posted its second-highest bars score of the season with a 49.225, and Yuleen Sternberg matched her career-high 9.90 on the event. Desiree Palomares qualified as an individual for the NCAA Championships by matching her career-best 9.90 on balance beam to win the event title.

RECORD-BREAKING TRIO

Three Golden Bear gymnasts combined for a program-record six All-Pac-12 honors this season, with Toni-Ann Williams, Arianna Robinson and Nina Schank all named to all-conference teams. Williams led the way with a career-high four All-Pac-12 honors, earning second team nods in the all-around and on vault, beam and floor. Robinson earned her third consecutive nod as a second team All-Pac-12 vault selection after earning a 9.895 RQS to rank 19th in the country. Schank became Cal's first freshman to earn an all-conference selection since 2015 as one of two Pac-12 rookies on the all-conference uneven bars squad. She earned a spot on the second team with a 9.905 RQS, good for 20th nationally.

BEARS #SHOWUP IN THE CLASSROOM

In addition to their success in the gym, the Golden Bears have enjoyed a stellar season in the classroom with four Bears earning Pac-12 All-Academic honorable mention laurels this season. Arianna Robinson led the way with her third conecutive honor, while Sylvie Seilnacht and Chelsea Shu earned their second nods. Yuleen Sternberg caps off her Cal career with her first career honor.

To be selected to the all-academic team, student-athletes had to earn a minimum 3.0 overall GPA and must have competed in at least 50 percent of meets in the regular season.

TONI AWARD WINNER

Toni-Ann Williams' 2017 season may have ended with an Achilles injury, but the Olympian has come back stronger than ever to lead the 2018 Golden Bears. The Randallstown, Md. product added two NACGC/W Regular-Season All-America titles to her trophy case, earning first-team honors on floor and second-team honors as an all-arounder. She now has six career Regular-Season All-America awards.

Regular-season All-Americans are determined by their final regional qualifying score (RQS) rankings entering NCAA Regional competition. The top eight gymnasts (including ties) on each event and in the all-around earn first-team honors, and the next eight are named to the second team.

Williams owns a team-high 21 event titles and is ranked in the nation's top 30 on vault (19th), floor (7th) and all-around (11th). Williams has accounted for more than 63 percent of Cal's titles this season, and has matched a Cal-record 39.700 all-around total as well as a 9.975 floor record twice while hitting 41 of 42 routines for a stellar 97.6 hit percentage.

She claimed her program-best 12th Pac-12 weekly honor after being voted the conference's Gymnast of the Week on Feb. 27. Williams lifted the Bears to their first regular-season victory over Utah in school history by matching her program-record 39.700 all-around total. Williams swept every event title against the Utes, including using a season-high 9.925 on bars and career-best 9.975 on floor to take her titles. The results came despite Williams not being scheduled to compete on floor originally, Williams missed floor against Stanford to rest a bone bruise made worse by her Juvenile rheumatoid arthiritis and was not slated to compete on the event for the second week in a row against the Utes. A last-minute decision by Williams and Cal's coaching staff helped clinch the historic victory for the Bears.

HOWELL'S HUNDRED

California head coach Justin Howell reached a career milestone in the Bears' third-place finish at the Pac-12 Championships, surpassing 100 career victories to become the program's first coach with 100 wins. Already the winningest coach in Cal gymnastics history, Howell entered the season with an 86-71 career record. Cal topped five opponents at the Pac-12 Championships to up his career record to 103-77. The Bears wrapped up the regular season with seven consecutive wins for a 12-4 regular-season record, including five wins over top 25 opponents.

LAST TIME OUT

Cal turned in its highest-scoring finish at a conference championship event in school history, taking third at the Pac-12 Championships with a 196.950.
• Justin Howell surpassed 100 career victories after topping five Pac-12 programs in the eight-team, two-session event.
• Cal set a program-record 49.400 on balance beam.
• Alicia Gallarzo, Toni-Ann Williams and Sofie Seilnacht each took third on beam with 9.90s.
• Arianna Robinson was the runner-up on vault with a 9.925, and Williams scored another 9.90 for third.
• Emi Watterson set a career-high 9.875 as the anchor on bars.
• Cal's 196.950 was the program's fifth-highest total in school history.

THE SEASON SO FAR

After a series of slow starts, specifically on the uneven bars, set the Golden Bears back with five consecutive scores below 196.0 to open the season, California has rebounded with seven strong outings since -- including four of the program's top five best overall totals in history.

Across 2018, the Bears have set 12 team scores that rank among the best in school history, including a 197.500 record score in Cal's historic upset of Utah. The Bears have turned in two scores of 197 or better this season, and set program-high totals on bars (49.550) and beam (49.400).

California's depth is paying off. Of Cal's 32 competitive routines used in 2018, 29 have earned season-high scores of 9.80 or better, including 15 of 9.90 or higher. Eight different gymnasts have combined to take home 40 titles.

RANKED ON THE ROAD TO NATIONALS

The Golden Bears opened 2018 at No. 11 in the Road to Nationals preseason coaches poll, the program's second-highest ranking in school history. Cal's No. 11 ranking was just one spot behind last season's best-ever No. 10 ranking. The Bears have maintained their momentum through the end of the regular season and now rank ninth with a program-record 196.890 RQS.

Cal's regular-season results against top 25 ranked opponents in 2018 (using rankings at time of competition):
No. 18 Stanford -- W, 195.475-194.925
No. 21 BYU -- L, 196.025-194.350
No. 13 Washington -- L, 196.325-194.850
No. 14 Arizona State -- L, 196.800-194.850
No. 19 Arizona -- W, 195.950-194.425
No. 4 UCLA -- L, 197.750-197.225
No. 25 Stanford -- W, 196.700-196.425
No. 4 Utah -- W, 197.500-197.450
No. 22 Minnesota -- W, 196.650-196.475

NEXT ROTATION

The top two teams from each regional site as well as 24 all-around competitors and 24 individual event specialists who are not already on an advancing team will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships, held in Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis, Mo. on April 20 and 21.