NCAA Athens Regional

April 4-6 | Stegeman Coliseum | Athens, Ga.

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The battle-tested and talented California women's gymnastics squad is prepared for a pair of back-to-back meets this weekend as the Golden Bears continue postseason action at the NCAA Athens Regional. Competition takes place from April 4-6 at Stegeman Coliseum, airing live on SEC Network+ and ESPN3.

With a new postseason format this year, Cal will need to produce top-two finishes in back-to-back days in order to advance to the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships. On Friday at 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET, Cal will compete in Session II for a top-two spot against No. 1 seed Oklahoma, Maryland and the winner of Thursday's play-in between NC State and New Hampshire. 

Should the Bears finish first or second on Friday, they'll advance to Saturday's four-team Regional Final, which will include the top two teams from Friday's Session I. The first session features No. 2 seed Georgia, No. 3 seed Kentucky, Missouri and Iowa State. The Regional Final is set for 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET.

The top two teams from Saturday's Regional Final will advance to the NCAA Championships, set for April 19-20 at the Fort Worth Convention Center in Fort Worth, Texas.

The Bears enter regional competition ranked in the top 13 nationally on three events, including No. 12 rankings on vault and bars. Cal is 13th on beam and 21st on floor. Three different Golden Bear gymnasts rank among the nation's top 50 on an event, including Pac-12 Freshman of the Year Milan Clausi (vault - 23rd). Kyana George ranks 43rd on vault, while Emi Watterson is 19th on bars.

California's talented roster includes 10 gymnasts who have combined to earn 38 scores of 9.90 or better across all four events. Impressively, Cal's top scores on each event have come from a different gymnast -- Clausi (vault, 9.95), Watterson (bars, 9.95), Maya Bordas (beam, 9.95) and Chelsea Shu (floor, 9.95).

HOW TO FOLLOW THE ACTION: Each round of the NCAA Athens Regional will be televised live on SEC Network +, which is also accessible on the watchESPN app or at www.watchESPN.com.. A link to live stats, is available on the women's gymnastics schedule page on CalBears.com. Follow @CalWGym on Twitter and Instagram for scoring updates, behind-the-scenes photos and videos and the latest information, and like Facebook.com/CalWGym for more on the Bears.

 

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NUMBERS TO KNOW

95%
California's freshman trio of Milan Clausi, Maya Bordas and Talitha Jones own a 95 percent hit rate for the season, hitting a combined 83 of their 87 routines. The trio is a perfect 25-25 on vault and 20-20 on floor.
3
Milan Clausi, who was voted the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year at this year's Pac-12 Championships, is Cal's third honoree in seven seasons. Clausi joins the company of standouts Serena Leong (2013) and Toni-Ann Williams as recipients of the prestigious award.
9.944
With three 9.95 scores in her last four uneven bars appearances, Emi Watterson is averaging a 9.944 on the apparatus. Her last four scores are as follows: 9.95 (3/1), 9.925 (3/8), 9.95 (3/17) and 9.95 (3/23). Watterson earned All-Pac-12 second team status on the event.
 

ROTATION ORDER

Team seedings for this weekend's competition were determined by regional qualifying scores. The rotation order is as follows:

SECOND ROUND
Starting Event    Session I     Session II    
Vault    #2 Georgia    #1 Oklahoma
Uneven Bars    Iowa State    NC State or New Hampshire
Balance Beam    #3 Kentucky    #4 Cal
Floor Exercise    Missouri    Maryland

REGIONAL FINAL
Starting Event    Team        
Vault    Session II Runner-Up
Uneven Bars    Session I Runner-Up
Balance Beam    Session II Winner
Floor Exercise    Session I Winner
 

ROAD TO NATIONALS

Athens is one of four predetermined host sites for regional competition, along with Corvallis, Ore. (Oregon State, Ann Arbor, Mich. (Michigan) and Baton Rouge, La. (Louisiana). Teams in each region were seeded by their Regional Qualifying Score.

Each regional site features nine teams, with the top two teams after the Regional Final at each of the four host sites advancing to form an eight-team NCAA Championships field.

Cal is seeking its first team regional title and fourth berth to the NCAA Championships in school history. This year marks the seventh consecutive season the Bears have qualified for regional competition as a team, and the 24th season overall. Cal has had representation at regionals 33 times in the 38-year history of NCAA Women's Gymnastics.

Last year Cal turned in a 196.725 for second place to advance past the NCAA Salt Lake City Regional. 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.
 

LAST YEAR AT THE NCAA SALT LAKE CITY REGIONAL

Cal clinched its second trip to the NCAA Championships in three years, placing second at the NCAA Salt Lake City Regional with a 196.725. The hosting Utah Utes won the regional with a 197.475. Cal's 196.725 was its highest total at an NCAA Regional event in school history. The Bears' chance to qualify for nationals came down to the final rotation. Entering the last set of performances, Cal owned a 147.700-147.425 edge over Auburn. The Bears wrapped up their last rotation first, going 5-for-6 with a fall in their final performance on the uneven bars, With a 196.725 total all but finalized for the Bears, Auburn would need a 49.300 on beam to tie the meet, and the Tigers were well within range after five performances. A miss by their event anchor sealed Cal's second-place finish.
 

ONE IN A MILAN

California freshman Milan Clausi was voted the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year at the Pac-12 Championships on March 23. Clausi took a league-leading four Pac-12 Freshman of the Week titles this season and led all conference freshmen in routines performed with 37, going a perfect 37-for-37 in those performances.

Clausi's nine scores of 9.90 or higher are tied for the most among the Pac-12's freshman gymnasts, and she is the only Pac-12 freshman to record a 9.90 or higher on three different events – vault, beam and floor. Her 9.95 on vault is the highest vault score among league freshmen, and she is the conference's leading freshman gymnast on vault.

Clausi's Pac-12 Freshman of the Year win makes her the third Golden Bear rookie to collect the honor in the last seven seasons. She joins Toni-Ann Williams (2015) and Serena Leong (2013) in that span.
LEADERS OF THE PAC
A pair of Golden Bears picked up All-Conference nods, with Milan Clausi and Emi Watterson each earning All-Pac-12 honors.

Clausi earned All-Pac-12 Second Team status on vault. She ranked fifth in the conference with an RQS of 9.890 and career-high of 9.95, Clausi is the Pac-12's top freshman on vault. She's won six of a possible 12 vault titles this year, and leads Cal with nine event titles overall.

Watterson, an All-Pac-12 Second Team selection on the uneven bars, is seventh in the Pac-12 after logging her career-high 9.95 on the uneven bars thrice this season, all within the last four meets. She has an RQS of 9.915 on the event, and is averaging a 9.944 on bars in her last four competitions. Watterson has won bars four times this season.
 

BEARS #EARNIT IN THE CLASSROOM

In addition to their success in the gym, the Golden Bears have enjoyed a stellar season in the classroom with five Bears earning Pac-12 All-Academic honorable mention laurels this season. Chelsea Shu and Sylvie Seilnacht earned their third consecutive honors, while sophomores Alma Kuc, Nina Schank and Emi Watterson were named to the All-Academic squad for the first time in their careers.

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.
 

LAST TIME OUT: BEARS BEGIN POSTSEASON AT PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIPS

Cal took fourth at the Pac-12 Championships with a 196.575
• Kyana George tallied a season-high 39.450 all-around total, including 9.90s on bars and floor.
• A pair of Bears finished in the top three on an event, with Emi Watterson finishing in second on bars with a 9.95 and Milan Clausi taking third with a 9.90 on vault.
• Maya Bordas earned a career-high 9.80 on vault.
• Cal's 49.375 on bars was its fifth-highest score on the apparatus in school history.
•Top-seeded UCLA repeated as Pac-12 champion, winning with a 198.400.
 

FANTASTIC FRESHMEN

Freshman Milan Clausi has stood out among the nation's newcomers with a perfect 37-for-37 hit percentage and career-highs of 9.95 on vault, 9.90 on beam and 9.925 on floor, but Clausi is hardly the only freshman that the Bears are seeing major contributions from. Maya Bordas has upped her personal bests all season long, culminating with a 39.450 all-around debut in the regular-season finale. Her 39.450 was the highest all-around score of any Pac-12 freshman this year. The Bears also have another strong freshman in Talitha Jones, who consistently contributes scores of 9.80 or better across all three of her events. Together, the trio has contributed to 87 competitive routines for the Bears and owns a combined 95 percent hit rate (83-for-87).
BEAMING WITH BRILLIANCE
Twice this season, the Golden Bears have set the school-record total on beam.

Cal first did it on Feb. 2, logging a 49.425 on beam in the Cal tri meet against Arizona State and BYU to top a less than one-year old record of 49.400 set at last year's Pac-12 Championships. 

In the regular-season finale on March 17, the Bears upped their all-time record total to 49.475, aided by three scores of 9.90 or higher. Milan Clausi and Cassidy Keelen each scored career-high 9.90s before Maya Bordas anchored the event with a title-winning and career-high 9.95.

The Bears' beam brilliance is just one of a string of stellar performances on the event for the Bears since the arrival of co-head coaches Justin Howell and Liz Crandall-Howell. Under their tutelage, Cal gymnasts have recorded the top seven beam scores in program history -- all in a span of less than four years, since Feb. 2016.
 

WILLIAMS FINALIST FOR AAI AWARD

Fifth-year senior Toni-Ann Williams is one of six finalists for the prestigious American Athletic, Inc (AAI) Award, an honor bestowed upon the most outstanding senior female gymnast in the country. The award is equivalent to football's Heisman Trophy. Williams' collegiate trophy case includes several dozen honors, from one NCAA All-America and eight NACGC/W Regular-Season All-America titles to six All-Pac-12 selections. She owns 77 event titles in her career. 
 

NEXT ROTATION

The Bears will need to finish in the top two in both Friday's Second Round and Saturday's Regional Final to qualify for a spot at the NCAA Championships. The 2019 Women's Gymnastics Championships are set for April 19-20 in Fort Worth, Texas.
 

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