The No. 9 women’s gymnastics team built on a promising first meet of the season to finish second at the NorCal Classic in Davis, California. Stanford competed against multiple Bay Area rivals, including San Jose State, No. 22 UC Davis, No. 23 Sacramento State and first-place finisher No. 3 California.
Stanford’s 194.700 total score placed them 0.250 behind Cal and 0.850 ahead of the next closest team, San Jose State. The Cardinal held a first-place lead heading into the final rotation, but were overtaken by the Golden Bears to close out the event.
After a debut to remember in the Collegiate Challenge, reigning Pac-12 Freshman of the Week Chloe Widner continued to excel for the Cardinal. She again was the only Stanford all-around gymnast, finishing with a robust score of 39.075. Her score was tied for second in the meet behind Cal junior Kyana George’s 39.475. She also recorded a new career-high of 9.900 on vault.
Junior Kyla Bryant paced the Cardinal on bars and beam with scores of 9.800 and 9.775, respectively. Those scores were each tied for fifth in the entire meet. Sophomore Morgan Hoang topped the team on floor with a third-place finish of 9.800.
Two other Stanford players established new career highs. Junior Grace Garcia’s 9.750 on bars and sophomore Madi Brunette’s 9.775 on vault set new personal bests. These across-the-board individual improvements from players with multiple years of eligibility remaining will be key for the program’s sustained success this season and beyond.
After the second place finish to Cal at the NorCal Classic, Stanford will gear up for its next competition: a Jan. 19 meet against the same Cal team.
Stanford will head across the Bay for a Pac-12 televised rematch against the Bears. The Cardinal is a career 12-1 head-to-head, but the two teams haven’t squared off since 2015, when Berkeley came away with a 195.475 to 195.325 victory. After the NorCal Classic, look for a hungry Stanford team seeking a win against the Golden Bears.
The match is set to begin at 4:00 pm PST in Berkeley, CA.
Contact Jeremy Rubin at jjmrubin ‘at’ stanford.edu.