Aiming to capture their first national title since 2018, the UCLA gymnastics team qualified for Saturday's NCAA championship final after a second-place finish in the semifinals today at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.
The No. 5 seed Bruins scored an overall 197.7375, finishing just 0.025 behind No. 4 Utah. Defending champions and top-seeded Louisiana State finished third, and No. 8 Michigan State was fourth.
The Bruins and Utah now advance to the team title competition on April 19, where they will join Oklahoma and Missouri, who beat out Florida and Alabama in today's other semifinal competition. The top finisher among the four teams will be crowned national champion.
The meet will be broadcast live on ABC at 2 p.m. PT.
"I could not be more proud of this team," said UCLA head coach Janelle McDonald. "They set out from day one to make something special happen, and to be headed to 'Four on the Floor' is everything we could ask for and hope for. But the job's not done. We've got one more meet, and we're going to come out swinging on Saturday."
In today's competition, the Bruins led early after scoring 49.5250 on the floor exercise in the first rotation, fell to third after a 49.2375 on the vault in rotation two, then used a 49.4250 on uneven bars in rotation three to climb back into first. UCLA's 49.5500 on balance beam in the final rotation secured a second-place finish for the Bruins after Utah moved into first with a 49.6500 on uneven bars.
