Pac-12 Women's Gymnastics Championships

Saturday, March 23 |  Session 1: 1 PM PT // Session 2: 5 PM PT | Maverik Center | West Valley City, Utah

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California's postseason is officially underway this weekend when the No. 16 Golden Bears take on a loaded Pac-12 Women's Gymnastics Championships field in West Valley City, Utah. The Bears, who are the No. 4 seed in the eight-team event, will compete with top-seeded UCLA, No. 2 Utah and No. 3 Oregon State in the evening session, beginning at 5 p.m. PT/6 p.m. MT from the Maverik Center.

The earlier afternoon session includes No. 5 seed Washington, No. 6 Arizona State, No. 7 Stanford and No. 8 Arizona.

The Bears are coming off two program-record scores in their regular-finale, with a 197.575 team total and 49.475 on balance beam. Individually, the Bears have seen 19 of their 37 unique competitive routines earn at least one 9.90 this season, coming from 10 different gymnasts this season. This is Cal's final opportunity to boost its Regional Qualifying Score before the NCAA Regional pairings are announced during Monday's NCAA Selection Show.

HOW TO FOLLOW THE ACTION: Both sessions of the Pac-12 Championships air live on the Pac-12 Networks, with Amanda Borden, Jim Watson and Samantha Peszek offering commentary and analysis. Fans can also tune in on the Pac-12 Now app or at www.Pac-12.com/live. 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

39.450
In her all-around debut in the Cal quad meet, Maya Bordas posted a 39.450 -- the highest all-around score by any Pac-12 freshman this season. Bordas won both the all-around and the beam titles, also setting a career-high 9.95 on beam.

2
The Golden Bears set two program-record scores in their regular-season finale. Cal won its quad meet with a school-record 197.575 overall total, and also upped the beam record for the second time this season to 49.475.

9.95
The Bears won every event title in the Cal quad meet with a score of 9.95 on each event. Four different gymnasts tallied career-high 9.95s to win her event: Milan Clausi (vault), Emi Watterson (bars), Maya Bordas (beam) and Chelsea Shu (floor).
 

ROTATION ORDER

Team seedings for Saturday's event were based on NCAA RQS. Teams in each session got to select the event they'll start on, with preference given to the highest seeds. Rotation order for Saturday is as follows:

Starting Event    Session I     Session II    
Vault    #5 Washington    #1 UCLA
Uneven Bars    #6 Arizona State    #2 Utah
Balance Beam    #8 Arizona    #3 Oregon State
Floor Exercise    #7 Stanford    #4 Cal
 

CAL AT THE PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Golden Bears have yet to claim a Pac-12 title, but have finished within the top three twice, finishing third when they hosted the event in Haas Pavilion in Berkeley. in 2014 as well as finishing third in 2018 at Tucson. Cal won the NorPac Conference title in 1984 before gymnastics joined the Pacific conference in 1987.

Individually, five Cal gymnasts have been crowned Pac-12 Champions, including one Bear currently on Cal's roster. Toni-Ann Williams won floor at the 2016 Pac-12 Championships with a 9.925, earning Cal's first conference floor title since 1997 and second floor title all-time. Williams became the first individual event champion on any apparatus since My-Lan Dodd's title-winning 9.90 on beam in 2004.
 

LAST YEAR AT THE PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIPS

Justin Howell earned his 100th career win as a head coach while the Bears turned in their highest score at a Pac-12 Championships event in program history. The Bears took third with a 196.950, finishing behind UCLA (197.500) and Utah (197.350). Cal topped Washington (196.750), Oregon State (196.575), Arizona State (196.425), Stanford (196.350) and Arizona (195.825). Cal set a program-record 49.400 on beam and scored 49.0+ on all four events.
 

AWARDS SEASON HAS ARRIVED

The beginning of championship season also heralds in awards season, and this weekend Cal's gymnasts have the opportunity to pick up multiple awards. Among the yearly awards up for grabs this week are: Gymnast of the Year, Specialist of the Year, Freshman/Newcomer of the Year, Coach of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year.  The Bears have six awards from among those categories to date:

Freshman/Newcomer of the Year: Serena Leong (2013), Toni-Ann Williams (2015)
Coach of the Year: Alfie Mitchell (1994), Cari DuBois (2003), Justin Howell (2013, 2016)
Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Alicia Asturias (2014) 
 

PAC-12 PREDICTIONS

California women's gymnastics is projected to finish third in the Pac-12 this season, according to a vote by the league's gymnastics coaches. The exact breakdown of points is as follows:
1. UCLA (7 first-place votes) – 49 points
2. Utah (1 first-place vote) – 42 points
3. California – 36 points
4. Oregon State -- 30 points
5. Washington -- 27 points
6. Stanford -- 17 points
7. Arizona State -- 16 points
8. Arizona -- 7 points
 

WHAT'S AN RQS, AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Beginning on Feb. 25 this season, women's gymnastics programs around the country earn their rankings based on their Regional Qualifying Score, or RQS. The RQS is determined using a team's top six scores of the season, three of which must be from an away meet. Of the six, the highest score is dropped and the remaining five are averaged.

RQS determines seeding at conference championships and in NCAA postseason meets. In the Pac-12 Conference, the top four-seeded teams compete in the evening session of the Pac-12 Gymnastics Championships, while the lower four teams compete in the afternoon session.

Cal currently ranks 16th with an RQS of 196.540. The Bears' six scores factored into the RQS currently are:
197.575 -- Cal quad meet, March 17
196.975 -- at Sac State, March 1
196.700 -- Cal tri meet, Feb. 2
196.650 -- Washington, Feb. 23
196.225 -- at Utah, Feb. 9
196.150 -- at Oregon State, Feb. 17
 

LAST TIME OUT: CAL SHATTERS PROGRAM RECORDS

No. 16 Cal powered its way to a school record 197.575 total behind a program-best beam score.
• Cal topped Illinois (196.175), San Jose State (194.450) and Sacramento State (192.100).
• The Bears scored a program-record 49.475 on beam.
• In addition to a program-record beam total, Cal tied the fourth-best vault (49.350) and floor (49.400) scores in school history, and set season-highs on both events.
• Four different Bears won titles -- Maya Bordas (beam, all-around), Milan Clausi (vault), Emi Watterson (bars) and Chelsea Shu (floor).
 

ONE IN A MILAN

California freshman Milan Clausi has claimed a league-leading four Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honors this season, including three consecutive weeks to close the regular season on March 5, 12 and 19.

Her most recent weekly win came on March 19 after Clausi won the vault title in the Cal quad meet with a career-high 9.95, and added a career-best 9.90 on beam.

Clausi won the vault and floor titles at San Jose State and finished third on beam to earn her third Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honor. It marked the second consecutive week in which she finished in the top 3 on all of her events. On March 5, Clausi earned the weekly laurels after claiming the vault title at the Sac State tri meet and finishing in the top three on all three of her events.

She collected her first Pac-12 weekly honor on Jan. 29, winning Pac-12 Freshman of the Week after posting a career-high 9.90 on vault at Arizona to win the title. Against the Wildcats, Clausi also earned a career-best 9.775 on beam and finished in the top four on floor with a 9.825.
 

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. 
 

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.
 

FANTASTIC FRESHMEN

Freshman Milan Clausi has stood out among the nation's newcomers with a perfect 34-for-34 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 81 competitive routines for the Bears and owns a combined 95 percent hit rate (74-for-78).
 

RANKED ON THE ROAD TO NATIONALS

The Golden Bears opened 2019 at No. 8 in the Women's Collegiate Gymnastics Association preseason poll as voted on by WCGA coaches. Cal's No. 8 ranking is its highest preseason ranking in school history, and it is the second time the Bears start the season in the top 10 after entering 2017 ranked No. 10 in the preseason poll. Last year, after earning a No. 11 preseason ranking the Bears finished at ninth overall after clinching their second NCAA Championship berth in the last three seasons.

Cal's results against top 25 ranked opponents in 2019 (using rankings at time of competition):
No. 4 LSU -- L, 196.775-195.650
No. 2 UCLA -- L, 197.700-196.075
No. 14 UC Davis -- W, 196.075-194.125
No. 24 Stanford -- W, 196.575-196.125
No. 23 Arizona -- L, 195.975-194.450
No. 14 BYU -- W, 196.700-194.975
No. 19 Arizona State -- W, 196.700-195.700
No. 4 Utah -- L, 197.150-196.225
No. 12 Oregon State -- L, 196.950-196.150
No. 18 Washington -- W, 196.650-196.350
 

NEXT ROTATION

Cal awaits the announcement of the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championship field, which will take place at 2 p.m. PT on Monday, March 26. The show will air live on NCAA.com. 

The championship field will be determined based on Regional Qualifying Scores and seeded by the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Committee. Regional qualifiers will compete at one of four regional sites. The four regional sites in 2019 are: Corvallis, Ore. (Oregon State), Ann Arbor, Mich. (Michigan), Baton Rouge, La. (LSU) and Athens, Ga. (Georgia). NCAA Regional competition will take place from April 4-6.
 

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