ANAHEIM – No. 9 Cal scored a season-high 196.075 in its second road meet to begin the year, finishing second at the California Grand Invitational's Collegiate Challenge powered by Under Armour.
 
Second-ranked UCLA captured the four-team event with a final score of 197.700, followed by Cal, Michigan State (194.900) and No. 14 UC Davis (193.825). A near capacity crowd at the Anaheim Convention Center turned out to see the elite competition.
 
"This was the second straight week we really tested our team in a big environment," said co-head coach Justin Howell, whose team opened the year at No. 4 LSU last Friday. "There were 12,000 fans at LSU and nearly a full house tonight, and that experience will help carry us through the season and into nationals."
 
Howell added that the chance to compete on a podium was also important for the Bears.
 
"The bounce is different and the feel is different from what we're have at Cal and at most places in the Pac-12," Howell said. "It was an amazing opportunity to give us that experience and a huge win for our team."
 
In the four-team format, Cal started on bars before progressing to beam, floor and finally vault. Although vault came in the final rotation, the Bears won the event with a score of 49.200, with UCLA posting 49.075. Toni-Ann Williams (9.825) and Silvie Seilnacht (9.850) both bettered their opening performances from LSU, while Rachael Mastrangelo matched her mark from last week with a score of 9.825.
 
"I was pleased that we had the strength to finish strong on a power event," Howell said.
 
Overall, Howell said he was happy with the overall team performance, noting that the Bears did what they were prepared to do.
 
"We were able to showcase our depth here," he said. "We have the potential to pull from 8-10 people on each event and give some people time to rest if they need it."
 
In particular, Howell noted the freshmen for their efforts on such a big stage, gaining experiences that will help them down the road.
 
"We have a young team and compete with a lot of freshmen and sophomores," Howell said. "Maya (Bordas) competed on all four events (bars and floor officially; vault and beam as exhibition) and did a really great job. It was nice to see a freshman step up in such an environment. Liz and I are really proud of the way all our freshmen handled themselves."
 
The Bears return to action Monday, Jan. 21 when they host Stanford at 6 p.m. in Haas Pavilion.