NCAA Gymnastics News: ’12 Months’ After ACL Surgery, UCLA Athlete Achieves ‘Iconic’ High Score

Although the Bruins hit 24-for-24 in the PAC 12 Championships, the NCAA gymnastics team was outscored by Team California at the end. With a total score of 198.400, California won the event, leaving the Bruins a little behind them with 197.775. No doubt the Bruins recorded the third-highest score of the season, but the California Bears earned their second-highest team totals on both floor and beam.

Recapitulating the career high of the NCAA gymnastics’ UCLA team, a review video of the event’s recap was highlighted by the gymnastics participants. A summarization of the entire event by the bronze medalist at the 2018 Pan American Championships, Frida Esparza, and 2018 region floor exercise champion, Katie McNamara was done after the Bruins versus California event.

Highlights of the NCAA gymnastics: PAC-12 Championships

With Katie McNamara making the season debut, Frida Esparza chucked in to embrace a score very close to her best friend and fellow gymnast. Elaborating on the event, Katie McNamara stated that Emily Lee started on the vault strong. The 2021 Winter Cup all-around bronze medalist made the 9.9 records in the vault and floor and 9.95 on the beam, which is her personal best to date. While every gymnast focused on their soft and sturdy landings, the Bruins overall started great.

Excited when Katie McNamara announced Chae Campbell’s career-high 9.95, her best friend, Frida Esparza’s happiness knew no bounds. The source declared that Frida Esparza also matched up with her friend-gymnast Campbell’s record, with the same 9.95 record in NCAA gymnastics. Frida Esparza expressed, “It feels amazing to get a career-high that is the same on the same event as my best friend. That was iconic.”

While Katie McNamara exhibited her debut on the beam, she admitted, “It was great to get back out there.” After the ACL surgery she had, and her comeback 12 months after the surgery, Katie McNamara feels blessed to be out on the beam and to also have a team that was super supportive of her.

The upcoming event for the Bruins

Scheduled to be held in Stanford, the UCLA gymnastics number 11 ranked team, the Bruins, will be competing with the number 38th ranked team, on the 1st of March 2024 in Maples Pavilion. UCLA Gymnastics will also be a road trip to Arizona State. Furthermore, UCLA will be heading up to host the ACC opponent Clemson on the 16th of March 2024.

Putting light on the just-gone event, the PAC-12 Championships, after the Bruins finished second the NCAA gymnastics head coach of team Bruins, Janelle McDonald told the Sun, “We kind of let what was happening in the competition affect how we performed (last week). And today, we were really good about staying in our Bruin bubble and focusing on what we needed to. I felt like they did that beautifully.”

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