Cal is headed to the finals of the NCAA women’s gymnastics championships for the first time in school history after finishing second in the semifinals 1 session on Thursday in Fort Worth, Texas.
Stanford finished third, 0.6375 points behind Cal. Only the top two teams from each semifinal advance to the Four on the Floor national championship round on Saturday.
“This is such a historic accomplishment for us,” Cal’s Mya Lauzon said. “We just performed with joy and freedom. That’s all we needed to do to make it to (Saturday), and that’s exactly what we did today. It’s such an amazing feeling to make it to Day 2 for the first time in history. We are just going to bring it and have a lot of fun.”
No. 2 ranked LSU edged No. 3 Cal 198.1125-197.7125 to take the top spot. Arkansas finished fourth. Utah and Florida advanced in the other semifinal session, leaving two-time defending national champion and top-ranked Oklahoma and Alabama out of the championship final meet.
“There was no doubt in our minds that they were capable of achieving whatever they want to in gymnastics – the coolest thing is that they did it while they were totally enjoying each other,” Cal co-head coach Liz Crandall-Howell said. “Now they get to go out and celebrate with this team one more time.”
LSU and Cal ran 1-2 for most of the session, with the Tigers taking the lead after the second rotation. Cal’s Lauzon and Stanford’s Anna Roberts tied for second in the all-around with scores of 39.6375.
Roberts won the vault with a score of 9.9500 and Lauzon tied for first in the balance beam with a score of 9.9500 and tied for third in the vault (9.9000).
Cal’s eMjae Frazier tied for third in the floor exercise and was sixth in the all-around.
“We’ve been practicing like every competition is not bigger than the next,” Frazier said. “Carrying that into nationals and not making it bigger than it is, but using our fans, using our team, using our family, and just continuing to build that energy with each other – and just not letting us get out of our own Bear bubble. It’s always just us,”
Saturday’s national championship meet is at 1 p.m. and will be broadcast on ABC and ESPN+.
Stanford produced the second-best beam (49.3125) and floor rotations (49.2875) at an NCAA Championships semifinals meet in program history.
