No. 10 Cal at No. 21 BYU

Friday, Jan. 12 | 6 PM PT/7 PM MT | Smith Fieldhouse | Provo, Utah

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No. 10 California women's gymnastics hits the road for the second of four consecutive away meets to take on the No. 21 BYU Cougars Friday at 6 p.m. in Provo, Utah. The meet gets underway at Smith Fieldhouse, with a broadcast of the event available on BYUtv.

The meet marks Cal's second in five days, as the Bears opened the season by taking first in the five-team NorCal Classic. Cal's 195.575 was the 10th-highest score of the opening weekend of NCAA Gymnastics, and the program's second highest score in a season opener in school history.

The Bears are led by a pair of standout all-arounders in Toni-Ann Williams and newcomer Kyana George, who each rank among the nation's top 15 gymnasts in several events. Williams is fourth in the nation on beam and eighth on floor, while George is ninth all-around, eighth on bars and 13th on beam. Monday's action also saw the debut of freshmen Alma Kuc and Nina Schank, who each tallied 9.875s on bars to rank just outside of the top 15 at No. 16.

Friday's meet in Provo will also mark a homecoming for Golden Bear associate head coach Liz Crandall-Howell, a two-time first-team All-American on the uneven bars at BYU. Crandall-Howell helped the Cougars qualify to three NCAA Championships from 1994-96, and claimed an NCAA Regional bar title in three of her four seasons in Provo.
 
HOW TO FOLLOW THE ACTION: Friday's meet will air live on BYUtv, accessible at www.BYUtv.org, and a link to live stats will be available via 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

2
Two Golden Bears are ranked in the Top 10 on at least one event. Toni-Ann Williams is fourth on beam with a 9.90 average, and eighth on floor with a 9.90 average. Kyana George is 8th on bars with a 9.90 average, and 9th all-around with a 39.35 average.

39.35
Kyana George's 39.35 all-around total at the NorCal Classic was the second-highest score in the all-around by any freshman in opening weekend. It was also the highest score among Pac-12 freshmen, earning George her first Pac-12 Freshman of the Week award.

4
California won the NorCal Classic for the fourth consecutive season. The five-team event also features Stanford, San Jost State, UC Davis and Sacramento State.
 

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LAST TIME OUT: QUEENS OF NORCAL COLLECT FOURTH CROWN

California continued its season-opening dominance of the Northern California gymnastics programs with a fourth consecutive NorCal Classic title on Monday, Jan. 8. Cal topped its four NorCal counterparts with a 195.475. Stanford took second with a 194.925, followed by San Jose State (194.475), UC Davis (194.400) and Sacramento State (192.875). 
• Cal's score was the 10th-best score in the nation of opening weekend, and the program's second-highest in a season opener in school history, only behind 2016's 195.575.
• Toni-Ann Williams won beam with a 9.90. Williams also placed second on vault (9.80) and third on floor (9.90)
• Kyana George was the all-around runner-up with a 39.35, the best all-around total by any freshman in the Pac-12 this season.
• George took second on bars with a 9.90, and second on beam with a 9.875. She finished fifth on vault (9.725) and floor (9.85).
• Alma Kuc and Nina Schank each tallied 9.875s on bars to share third place.
• Alicia Gallarzo earned a 9.85 on beam to win third on the event.
• Sylvie Seilnacht tied a career-high 9.80 on floor.
• Cal tallied scores above 49.0 on two events -- beam (49.050) and floor (49.100)

GEORGE WINS FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK

With the second-highest all-around score of any freshman in the nation, Kyana George was named the first Pac-12 Freshman of the Week of the 2018 season. George scored a 39.35 across her four events at the season-opening NorCal Classic to help lead the No. 11 Bears to a fourth consecutive title over No. 18 Stanford, San Jose State, UC Davis and Sacramento State. Her all-around total was the highest by any freshman in the opening weekend of Pac-12 competition, and the second-highest by any freshman in the nation. 

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 is just one spot behind last season's best-ever No. 10 ranking.
 
Cal is set to face four opponents ranked in the Road to Nationals preseason top 25 this season, and nearly every single program the Bears will face this season is ranked or received votes in the preseason poll, including two top-three programs in Utah (No. 5) and UCLA (6), and seven top 30 programs, including Washington (15), Stanford (18), Arizona (26), Minnesota (27) and Central Michigan (30).

Cal's results against top 25 ranked opponents in 2018 (using rankings at time of competition):
No. 18 Stanford -- W, 195.475-194.925

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 (5 first-place votes) – 47 points
2. Utah (3 first-place votes) – 44 points
3. California – 30 points
4. Washington – 28 points
T5. Oregon State -- 27 points
T5. Stanford -- 27 points
7. Arizona -- 12 points
8. Arizona State -- 9 points

MEET THE NEWEST BEARS

California's 2018 squad includes five new faces from a signing class named Top 10 in the country last year by CollegeGymFans.com. Among the newest Bears are:
• Kyana George, the 2017 Junior Olympic National floor champion who also took third all-around and third on beam.
• Alma Kuc, a member of the Polish National Team who competed at the 2015 World Gymnastics Championships and 2017 European Championships, Kuc was the 2016 Polish uneven bars champion and logged a bronze finish on floor at the Polish National Championships.
• Victoria Salem, who posted two top-three finishes at the 2016 JO Nationals, winning the balance beam title and taking silver on bars. She was seventh all-around at the prestigious event after winning the beam title and turning in top-four finishes on every event at Level 10 Regionals.
• Nina Schank, the 2017 JO Nationals uneven bars champion who also finished ninth all-around.
• Emi Watterson, an Australian standout who joined the Bears this December and took fourth on vault and seventh on bars at the 2016 Elite Gym Massilia in Marseille, France.

FAMILIAR FACES

California returns a strong core of gymnasts from the 2016 NCAA Championship squad. The Bears are led by the return of 2016 Olympian Toni-Ann Williams, who missed most of last season due to an Achilles tear, as well as two-time All-Pac-12 vaulter Arianna Robinson. Sylvie Seilnacht also suffered a season-ending injury in 2017 and is back in the lineup alongside sister Sofie Seilnacht, who contributed on three events last season. Sophomore Cassidy Keelen's rookie debut also ended prematurely with an injury last year, but the Bears are expecting heavier contributions from Keelen as she returns with Yuleen Sternberg, Alicia Gallarzo, Rachael Mastrangelo and Chelsea Shu.

WILLIAMS GRANTED ADDITIONAL YEAR OF ELIGIBILITY

The Bears received exciting news this fall when Toni-Ann Williams, one of the most decorated gymnasts in the history of California gymnastics, was awarded an additional year of eligibility by the NCAA. Williams, a 2016 Olympian a four-time NACGC Regular-Season All-American, tore her Achilles in February 2017, sidelining her for most of her junior season. A fifth year of gymnastics eligibility means Williams will be able to compete in both the 2018 and 2019 seasons while she pursues additional coursework at Cal.

NEXT ROTATION

California's third road trip of the season takes the Golden Bears to Seattle, Wash., where they'll face the Washington Huskies on Saturday, Jan. 20 at 12:30 p.m. The meet is set for the Alaska Airlines Arena and airs live on the Pac-12 Network.
 
California's home opener is Sunday, Feb. 4 against Arizona beginning at 2 p.m.

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