BERKELEY – The Pac-12 announced its 2023 Women's Gymnastics Preseason Coaches Poll Thursday afternoon selecting No. 8 California third in the conference.
 
The reigning Pac-12 regular season co-champs have now been picked third in six-consecutive polls and this year's list is nearly identical to the 2022 poll when it comes to the top-three teams. As they did last season, the Bears garnered 40 points, but for the first time in the Justin Howell and Elisabeth Crandall-Howell era received a first-place vote. Earlier this month the team was chosen as the second-highest ranked Pac-12 team in the WCGA National Preseason Poll coming into the season ranked eighth.
 
Like last year, No. 3 Utah led the way picking up one more point than it did last year with 49 and received the other seven first-place votes. No. 10 UCLA, a team that Cal topped this past March in the Pac-12 Championship, followed in second mirroring its 41 points from last year. Oregon State (32), Stanford (25), Washington (15), Arizona State (12), and Arizona (10) rounded out the rest of the field.
 
In 2022 the Bears made history in a number of ways including earning a share of the Pac-12 regular season title for the time and seeing their best performance at the Pac-12 Championship placing second with a score of 197.425. It was also the sixth-highest score recorded in the country during conference championship weekend. Cal notched three of the top-ten scores in program history of the course of the season including a 197.900 against Iowa that is the second-highest total in the record book. If that weren't enough, the team set the program record in the floor routine (49.600) and the balance beam (49.525)
 
The new season begins on January 7^th with the Bears competing in the largest regular-season meet in collegiate gymnastics history, the Super 16 Las Vegas presented by Ozone. They will participate in one of the four quad meets held that weekend.
 
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