On Saturday, #29 ranked Arizona will host #5 ranked UCLA in Tucson. UCLA have been on fire this season. Besides being ranked #5 overall in the team standings, they are ranked #1 as a team on floor, with three of their gymnasts ranked within the top 10 (Sadiqua Bynum, Angi Cipra and Hallie Mossett), and senior Danusia Francis is ranked #1 on beam. The team was disappointed last year when they did not qualify to Super Six, so they’ll be wanting to keep their momentum up as the season progresses. They lost their most recent meet to Florida, so they will be looking to make some improvements and will be counting on a win this weekend.
 
The Arizona Wildcats will be looking to improve this year under new head coach, Tabitha Yim. Previously, Yim was the assistant coach at Stanford and helped coach the team to its two highest team scores at an NCAA Championship competition in program history (in 2012 and 2015). The Wildcats are actually undefeated so far this year, however they did struggle a bit in their last meet against TWU and posted only a 193.475. They’ll be looking to put in their best effort against UCLA.
 
Below, we take a look at each team’s strengths and weaknesses – where do they really stand out, and where can they improve.
 

The Bruins Own the Floor

 It should be no surprise that I’m listing floor as UCLA’s greatest strength – they are the #1 ranked team in the country on this event at the moment, after all. The team does well on floor for three main reasons: powerful tumbling, good landings, and unique and exciting choreography. For powerful tumbling, look no further than Bynum, who is so strong that she performs a double back as a side pass, needing little run time to pull it around. The Bruins are also pros at minimizing deductions. Their overall form is great, but it’s their landings that are really impressive. While power and execution are key to a successful floor routine, the thing that really sets UCLA apart is their choreography. Thanks to the creative genius of Miss Val and the gymnasts themselves (Mossett choreographed her own routine), the routines are fun to watch. Each gymnast really gets into character and is not afraid to go all out in competition, and this is rewarded by the judges. One of my favorite routines is Cipra’s – check out a clip below:
 

Every Little Hop Counts

UCLA are truly spectacular on all four events – that’s why they are ranked #5 nationally. But there’s always room for improvement, and for the Bruins, improvement can be made in the first half of competition on vault and bars. They are currently ranked #13 on both events, and they don’t have any gymnasts ranked in the top 35 on either event.
 
On vault, Pua Hall is arguably their best and is currently ranked #38. This is partly because she performs a Yuchenko 1 1/2 , valued out of a 10.0. She’s also capable of sticking this vault, as she did against Florida to score a 9.9. Bynum also performs a 10.0 vault - a yurchenko arabian layout half, which she has great form on in the air. Apart from Hall and Bynum, the rest of the gymnasts perform yurchenko fulls, and while the form on these is really good in the air, they all have little hops and steps on landing which take off valuable tenths.  

The Bruins have similar issues on bars with landings. In their meet against Florida, only Katelyn Ohashi and Sophina DeJesus stuck their landings. A few gymnasts will also be looking to improve their form on handstands and small feet separations, but working on landings will help their scores a lot on this event. Check out Ohashi's stuck dismount on her routine below:

The Swinging Wildcats

Bars is undoubtedly the best event for the Wildcats. They are currently ranked #18 in the nation on the event, and the main reason behind this is their execution. Every gymnast in the lineup has amazing form - hit handstands, pointed toes, and often stuck landings. What's really great about Arizona's bars lineup is that there is a lot of variety in it as well. You'll see all kinds of release moves, from Giengers to Tkatchevs to Jaegers, plus all kinds of dismounts - double tuck, full in, and double layouts. It makes watching their bar rotation really exciting. Look out for routines from junior Gabby Laub and senior Lexi Mills, who have some of the best execution.

Battling the Bobbles

Arizona has a few very elegant and strong beam workers - most notably seniors Shelby Edwards and Jessie Sisler and junior Krysten Howard. They display strong acrobatics and absolutely gorgeous choreography throughout their routines. Where the Wildcats can improve a bit is on little bobbles here and there, particularly on their acrobatics, and on sticking landings. Still, for being early in the season, the team is doing very well on the event.

Similarly, on vault, the Wildcats will be looking to improve on overall difficulty as well as execution. While the gymnasts are usually very good with landings, many of them tend to pike down on Yurchenko fulls, causing deductions to pile up.

You can check out the meet on Saturday at 12:00pm PST on the Pac-12 Network.


Related:
Gymnastics: The Hardest Break Up of My Life (by Shelby Edwards)
NCAA Meets of the Weekend
Will UCLA Rise Again?