FORT WORTH, TX—UCLA finished in third place in their Nationals semi-final Thursday, April 13. A top 2 finish was required to qualify for the final.
The first event was beam, where UCLA had a strong performance and landed in first place after its conclusion. Emma Malabuyo received a score 9.950. This was tied for the top beam score. Malabuyo’s music cut out midway through her floor routine. She still secured an impressive score of 9.8875.
Selina Harris scored a career high 9.9500 on the floor. Margzetta Frazier achieved the same score minutes later. This tied her career high score. Chae Campbell and Jordan Chiles also scored 9.9375 and 9.9875 respectively. It was UCLA’s highest post season score on the floor.
UCLA led after two events and were firmly in the proverbial driving seat. They would drop two places to third after scoring 49.1750 on vault. On March 31, UCLA scored 49.575 on the same event.
The final event was bars. Chae Campbell started UCLA off with a score of 9.9000. Jordan Chiles followed with a perfect 10. Harris and Frazier scored 9.9125 and 9.9000. After scores were tallied, UCLA finished with an overall score of 197.9125. This was only good enough for third place as Utah scored 198.2250 and Oklahoma scored 198.1625.
This was the first time UCLA qualified for Nationals since 2019. Chiles won the accolade of NCAA Uneven Bars and Floor Exercise Champion. The 21 year-old Oregon native won a silver medal for USA in the 2020 Olympic Games held in Tokyo in 2021.
